Macy’s to test dual-format concept in Evergreen Park as part of expansion beyond shopping malls

Macy’s is testing a new concept in south suburban Evergreen Park: a dual store format that includes its off-price concept, Macy’s Backstage, and a small-format Market by Macy’s.

The store, located at 9700 S. Western Ave. at Evergreen Plaza, opened last week and will mark its official grand opening on Friday. Marc Mastronardi, the company’s chief stores officer, said in an interview that Macy’s will be watching the store’s performance as it decides whether or not to pursue Backstage and Market pairings in additional locations. No additional dual-format stores are in the works in the short term, Mastronardi said.

“As we build out our plans for the future years, we’ll come back and start to decide whether they are better represented together, or different, (or) a combination of both,” he said.

At a combined more than 70,000 square feet, the Evergreen Plaza stores are smaller than typical Macy’s and are part of the retailer’s growing investment in locations outside of traditional shopping malls. The company announced this summer it would open Market by Macy’s locations outside of shopping malls in Georgia and Missouri as well as in Evergreen Park. The Missouri store, when it opens in November, will replace a full-size in-mall Macy’s nearby that is slated for closure.

Once-grand department stores and mall retailers have struggled over the last decade, and the pandemic didn’t help matters. In January 2021, Macy’s announced it was shuttering its store at Water Tower Place downtown, leaving more than 300,000 square feet vacant. And in April, former Water Tower Place owner Brookfield Properties announced it was walking away from the troubled mall, where the former Macy’s space remained empty.

Last year, the company closed seven in-mall stores and didn’t open any, according to external communications associate Stephanie Jimenez. The company is on track to open eight Market by Macy’s outside of malls by the end of the fall, Jimenez said.

The “vast majority” of U.S. Macy’s are still in malls, Mastronardi said, and he said he sees the company’s future growth happening both inside and outside of malls.

Although Macy’s describes the Evergreen Plaza concept as its first dual-store format, it has pursued store-within-store concepts before. The company has Backstage locations in over 300 of its mall-based stores nationally. In Chicago, a Backstage opened in the company’s State Street flagship in the Marshall Field and Co. Building in April. The company first brought the Backstage concept to the Chicago area in 2018. There are now nine in the area in total.

In another pass at store-within-store concepts, the company is opening Toys R Us stores across its U.S. retail locations. The State Street Toys R Us is scheduled to open this month.

Evergreen Park’s demographics made it an attractive location for the dual-format test location, Mastronardi said. Market by Macy’s has fewer, more curated offerings than a full-size Macy’s but the products are available “up and down the value scale,” he said; the off-price Backstage concept caters to lower-income consumers.

“The combination of that assortment aligns to having what’s in the suburban Evergreen market,” Mastronardi said. “You’ve got a demographic that is willing to travel that represents a really broad range of age, of affluence, gender.”

Macy’s has hired more than 60 people to work in the Evergreen Plaza store, and the company says it plans to hire for about 20 seasonal positions as the holiday season approaches.