Survival of the filthiest

Back in the last century, I could not feature what people saw in Macy’s, and my opinion has not changed much since then.

Their merchandise is unexceptional and it’s put out on the sales floor with all the élan of Kohl’s. A friend of mine in the Valley They Call Silicon used to pick up some extra cash around the holidays by putting clothes that customers had pulled out—refolding sweaters and jeans, and hanging dresses and the like on the racks. After the Cupertino store closed, she was sent to the Stanford Mall one, and I don’t know how she found the strength to come in to work: the two times I went there, clothes were jammed into the rounders and actually just tossed on the floor.

Stanford Mall is one of the snootier shopping centers in the Valley.

Anyhow, a month or so ago when I was in Tysons Corner mall, I wandered through the Macy’s and was reminded why I don’t even like to go in there. These are louvres on fitting room doors:

They haven’t been dusted in donkey’s years.

And here’s the floor of the fitting room:

I was there around 30 minutes after opening time. They obviously don’t vacuum between store closing and opening.

And I remember that, back in the 90s, I saw the same thing.

I do not comprehend how this is the department store left standing over Wanamaker's, Marshall Field, Hecht, Bullock's and the rest.