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Fancy bags, fatter carts
Macy’s is trying a very department-store version of glow-up economics: sell more premium stuff, attract shoppers who still have money, and hope the receipts look less tragic. On Thursday, executives said that mix helped drive sales growth across the chain’s brands in the second quarter.
The part investors actually care about
The company also raised its outlook, which is the kind of sentence Wall Street likes to hear after a stretch of retailer doom-scrolling. If Macy’s can keep getting middle- and high-income shoppers to trade up, that’s a sign the brand has more pricing power than a dusty mall anchor usually gets credit for.
Why this isn’t just “nice quarter, move along”
For investors, the real question is whether this is a one-off sugar high or the start of a cleaner turnaround. Premium goods can lift margins fast, but they also depend on shoppers feeling confident enough to spend like they’re not doing mental math at the register.
Big picture: Macy’s is basically betting that the department store can survive by being a little less department store-y. So far, the premium pivot is doing the heavy lifting.