Macy’s opens off-price ‘Backstage’ shop at Mayfair
It’s contained within department store
Macy’s has unveiled the first Wisconsin edition of Backstage — the off-price venture central to the big retailer’s efforts to increase shopper traffic and boost sagging sales numbers.
The store-within-a-store quietly began doing business Friday at Macy’s Mayfair location — a “soft opening” designed to work out any bugs before a full-blown grand opening set for Saturday.
At 20,000 square feet carved out of lower-level space that used to house intimates and children’s clothing, the Backstage shop is a good-sized area stocked with an eclectic assortment of merchandise aimed at bargain-hunting customers.
It’s among the latest of 48 shops opened nationwide since 2015 by Cincinnati-based Macy’s. Most, like the one at Mayfair, are inside full-line Macy’s department stores.
Backstage is meant to appeal to “a savvy and fashionconscious customer … who loves great deals,” Stephen Lucas, manager of the Macy’s at Mayfair, said as he showed off the new outlet operation.
The merchandise — from Calvin Klein scarves ($14.99) to Nine West handbags ($29.99) to five-ounce bags of kettlestyle, avocado oil, lime ranch chips ($2.99) — is sourced by buyers who work exclusively on Backstage, not the full-line Macy’s operation.
Quantities are small, deliberately. The idea is to foster a “thrill-of-the-hunt” mentality and push shoppers to act promptly when they spot something they like. Backstage doesn’t discount or offer coupons; the prices marked are as low as they’re going to get.
“You may see these two things now, and if you don’t get it now it may not be here three days later,” Lucas said. “Because this is it — we get it and we move on. The assortment in the store is quick moving.”
And with the merchandise changing often, customers have incentives to return frequently, Macy’s media relations manager Carolyn Ng said. That, at least, is the hope.
Shoppers don’t pay for purchases in individual departments as they do elsewhere in Macy’s. Rather, they queue up in a single checkout line, where employees wearing bright red “Stage Crew” T-shirts staff five registers.
The winding route to the registers is stocked with an almost-quirky variety of potential impulse purchases — gourmet snacks, smartphone power packs, “microbead” travel pillows, honey balsamic salad dressing, Reebok crew socks,
even a hardcover book saluting the busty-babe heroines of DC Comics fame.
If it all sounds sort of like a TJ Maxx-type operation, that might not be coincidence. Discounters such as TJ Maxx, sister brand Marshalls, and Ross Dress for Less have thrived while traditional department stores like Macy’s have struggled.
Following the lead of upscale retailer Nordstrom, which has seen good results from its offprice Nordstrom Rack unit, other department stores have begun heading down the discount path.
Kohl’s is experimenting with a handful of Off/ Aisle stores separate from the full-size Kohl’s stores. Macy’s is further along in its off-price efforts, and has been concentrating on opening Backstage shops within its department stores.
That strategy could help Macy’s operate more efficiently, and drive traffic to its stores, said Anne Brouwer, a senior partner with Chicago-based retail consultant McMillan Doolittle. It also raises the question of whether lowpriced Backstage shops will cannibalize the fullline stores. But with Macy’s sales already slumping — sales at existing stores have posted yearover-year declines for nine consecutive quarters — “better to cannibalize yourself rather than let somebody else do it,” Brouwer said.
In any event, the Backstage results to date have been positive, Ng said.
“For the stores that have this store-in-store concept, there has been an overall lift in the building, in the full line, so it’s a positive,” she said.
Macy’s started Backstage with free-standing stores in 2015 and launched the store-within-a-store idea last year.
With Macy’s overall shopper traffic down, the retailer isn’t risking a lot in giving Backstage a try, Brouwer said.
“There’s a lot to be learned,” she said. “It’s early stages. There are solid business reasons why they are moving this direction. It makes a lot of sense in terms of the operating efficiencies.
“The question is, how does the customer respond?”