As a customer, I am dissatisfied with Macy's and its parent company
Federated Department.  I think the consolidation of many recent and
past acquisitions under the Macy's umbrella was not a great idea and
shareholders and customers have lost out.

I recently had a very bad experience at the Macy's Men's Store in San
Francisco.  You can read about it in my blog posting here:
http://accidentalexposure.blogspot.com/2007/02/armani-and-ferragamo-p...

According to two sales associates, Ferragamo and Armani are not
sending new merchandise to Macy's.  Maybe this is part of Macy's
strategy of making luxury more affordable, but I think they are
lowering their standards and customer service is suffering.

The recent news that Carl Icahn is increasing his ownership in FD also
sends a signal.  Perhaps he sees greater potential in the company than
is being realized now with FD's current strategy and direction.

I'm not a billionaire investor, but as a consumer, I have a choice to
shop at a FD brand - Macy's or Bloomingdale's or shop elsewhere.  I
will be shopping elsewhere.

Jeff in San Francisco

I am also a stockholder and I have had the opposite experiences.
Since Federated had taken over RobinsonsMay in Los Angeles not only
has the merchandise gotten better but the service and shopping has
become easier.  Having relatives in New York and Detroit I now can buy
them personal gifts as oppose to just sending them checks for their
birthdays and holidays.  If they have a problem with the style or size
they can return them without any problem to the nearest Macy's store
and get what they want.  I think this is great!  Also most of the
merchandise in the old RobMay stores were piled high with on/sale off/
sale/ on/sale merchandise...depending on the day I went shopping.  The
stock was piled so high I couldn't even reach it.  Now the Macy's
stores are cleaner, laid out better, nicer, a better selection of
quality fashionable merchandise and with sales people who care about
my needs.   Also Macy's carries lines like Coach and "real" fine
jewelry that my nieces love.  I'm very happy that Macy's is a national
chain.  I think it will take some time to fine tune their stocks to
meet individual areas needs but anyone who thought it would be a
perfect, immediate fit doesn't have a clue about retail.  It takes
time... so mellow out and let them continue to improve with their
plans.