The quality and capabilities of the permanent managers were low, probably because their salaries were low, they lacked management training and education, and they were demotivated by the economic climate, all the layoffs, and the deterioration of the company. The store manager seemed mentally and physically checked out much of the time and was simply not a presence on the floor during the holiday season. She also didn't seem to be clued in to who among her employees were talented and hard working versus who were immature, lacking customer service skills, in over their heads, or abrasive to their colleagues and customers. For example, I observed one sales associate escalate a customer issue to a manager. The manager who took it on soon lost her temper with the customer, repeatedly raising her voice with him and being utterly disrespectful to him as a person and a supposedly valued Macy's customer. Most of the other cons stemmed from the core deficiency of supremely poor management.
I would agree with the many reviewers who noted the emphasis on credit card/loyalty sales. Too much attention was paid to this, without spending much time on properly training employees in register, sales, and customer service skills or informing them of upcoming sales and events or notifying them of changes in store hours during the holidays, new merchandise arrivals, etc. Also, through the holidays, there never seemed to be enough shopping bags or gift boxes to give customers, so they were sent to alternate registers, sometimes even alternate floors or stores within the system. This just should never be. It is wholly predictable that, over the holidays, shoppers will want the seasonal shopping bags and gift boxes suitable to their purchases. Something is very wrong with a system that makes no allowances for this and doesn't chastise sales associates who send their customers in search of such basic items instead of tracking them down themselves.
There also appeared to be almost a caste system in the store I worked in, where the permanent hires did not play nicely in the sandbox with the seasonal hires and, worse, used the confusion of the holiday influx of new recruits and shoppers to offload their most odious tasks to the unwitting new hires. I've worked seasonally at other retail stores, and this sort of behavior by the permanent hires was unacceptable to them. But, at Macy's, it is not only tolerated, but management seemed to participate in it.
I think this is a company in deep distress. The brand has been leveraged downward by constant couponing and markdowns, training the core customer base to expect them. Sales are down. Another round of layoffs has been announced. Overall service is pitiful, though there are sales associates who do their best to compensate for the systemic failures around them. I don't wish Macy's any ill will--in fact, I hope it gets its act together and survives--but I was happy when I'd finally finished my commitment to work for them over the holiday season. I expected better treatment and a higher degree of competence in the management.
