Assignment 5: Angelica

The Macys Department store in Lenox Mall exemplifies a combination of strategies from A.T. Stewart and the Sears, Roebuck department stores. The A.T. Stewart stores of the 1840s were very decorative and appealed mostly to middle class women. Each floor exhibited different merchandise, with open gallery-like settings for viewing, and by the 1860s the department store was located along the edges of the downtowns following the customers. Macys still displays these aspects in their location by being outside of the Atlanta downtown area, in Buckhead. The interior is not as elegant as A.T. Stewart stores were, but they do appeal to the middle class women (inside the women's Macys section) with lighting and open space that showcases the merchandise. Each floor within Macys is divided into different departments to exhibit different merchandise and have uninterrupted views with pathways to guide the shopper.

Sears on the other hand used a different approach in that it also appealed to the male clientele with home and automobile goods at affordable prices for the middle class male, in addition to some essentials for the women. In the first photograph, the corner sign says "Macys Men" and the decor is very simple and non-ornamental similar to the Sears store designs after the 1960s. Sears moved away from having many windows in their stores because the natural light faded the merchandise, so they developed the windowless store similar to the Macy's exterior. Large display windows were used at the entrance to showcase the interior merchandise and entrances were oriented toward a vast parking lot, similar to this Macy's photograph. The interior photographs of Macys show the different types of lighting used to simulate natural light and like Sears, they place merchandise on the floor that can be examined by customers without the help of clerks. In my experience visiting Macys, I noticed that there are not many clerks wandering around the store offering assistance and the client is free to browse and even price check without the need of a clerk. Sears was one of the first department stores to incorporate large isles (as seen in the macys interior photograph) for ease of movement and to more clearly define the different departments. Sears was based on function and simplicity while A.T. Stewart was based on ornamentation and appeal, and Macys now portrays a combination of both appealing to men and women of not only the middle class, but also working class with the incorporation of sales racks and coupon days.