The Unfortunate Thing About Macy's? Everything

The beleaguered retail chain, which has been aggressively closing stores in recent months, announced more bad news Thursday: Sales were down in the first quarter of the year, leading to a 39 percent drop in profits. As a result, the company's stock price plunged more than 16 percent Thursday, to its lowest level since 2011. Macy's steady decline, analysts say, is the result of a number of factors, including the demise of shopping malls, as well as competition from online stores and off-price retailers such as TJ Maxx. Another issue: The company tends to sell run-of-the-mill products that shoppers can find more easily — and often more cheaply — elsewhere. “Here's the unfortunate thing about Macy's: There's nothing that sets it apart,” said Milton Pedraza, chief executive of the Luxury Institute, a New York-based research firm. “It's crowded, it's messy, the service is poor. The business model of Macy's is no longer justifiable in a world dominated by Amazon and Walmart.”