The Power of Macy’s Brand

More than three years after Hurricane Katrina tore through Macy stores in downtown New Orleans and suburban Kenner, southeast Louisiana officials and shoppers have welcomed the retailer’s return with wide open arms and expressions of gratitude. The high level of anticipation has been a glowing tribute to the power of a revered 150-year old New York brand.

Though it decided not to reopen its store in the still vacant New Orleans Centre, Macy’s has built a new, larger store in the busy Lakeside Shopping Center in neighboring Metairie and has rebuilt its store in the Esplanade Shopping Mall in Kenner, near the Louis Armstrong International Airport.

Both stores were opening in October 2008, nearly 38 months after Katrina winds and failed levees wrecked both stores and their shopping centers.

Long, Anxious Wait

It has been a long anxious wait for the area. For nearly two years, there was no word whether Macy would return. Several hundred thousand New Orleans area people had no home to return to after evacuating for Katrina, creating doubt about the eventual new size of the marketplace. There was also serious doubt about the ability to find enough employees to operate the stores.

Public officials and shoppers remained hopeful, if not optimistic, although there was no store presence, no building signs and no local advertising to even remind them of the name. There was little more than Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on television to preserve the name.

Macy’s was also a relative newcomer and outsider to the area, at least compared to traditional local favorites like the D. H. Holmes Department Store, Maison Blanche and Godchaux’s, all of which now live only as fond memories.

However, Macy’s is back and the welcome shows how strong that brand name really is.

The World's Best Brands

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade