At first she didn’t understand me but I prevailed by brushing my hands across my chest and arms adding a shiver motion. I could find only one employee in Mens and she was standing on a step ladder stacking denims at the Calvin Klein section. However it took me about five minute of wandering before I found the men’s department. There were two floors of merchandise and the sign read Men’s on the Main Floor. Inside I saw one or two shoppers at the cosmetics and fragrances area in conversation with an employee behind the counter. The two door openings required a hefty pull, unusual since my recollection was department store doors opened electronically as one entered and departed. I pulled into a space near the Macy store entrance. As the two largest stores each has a large parking lot. The Macy’s store is located at one end on the center about six hundred yards from Nordstrom's at the opposite end. The Corte Madera shopping center consisted of 2500 acres with more than 60 shops, department stores, eateries, a cool Apple store and a Tesla showroom to visually add to the pleasure of the visit. Millions of couch viewers, thousands in follow on the avenues of New York.Īs the new century arrived Macy’s had suffered from emerging online competition, crippling debt service, staid products failing to attract and retain new demographic shoppers, and management turnover. To go along with family, turkey and cranberry every Thanksgiving Day was the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. By the middle of the Twentieth Century it owned over one thousand stores in 45 states and was an American icon revered in the same breath as Chevy, Burma Shave, and our national pastime, MLB. Macy’s Incorporated was founded in 1858 in New York and expanded over the decades by new store openings and acquisitions. Maybe I’d find a sweater there but if not there was a Nordstrom store which for probably twice the price I could find a nice summer sweater. Its website said the Corte Madera store opens at 10AM. Or maybe like so many other Macy’s stores it had closed. With no time to receive an order on online, I recalled there was a Macy’s in the nearby shopping center. If and when the town’s thrift store reopens I’d take it there. Having gained undisclosed pounds since 2019 the sweater wore tight, freakishly tight said my honest mirror. On a shelf in my bedroom closet I found one, the only one I had, forgotten and blue. Thinking twilight time with cocktails poolside in Connecticut and Long Island and a screened-in porched in Atalanta, I’d need a cotton summer sweater. I’m a meticulous packer maximizing every inch of my mid-sized, two wheel Eagle Creek carry-on suitcase. I’m busting out of covid jail tomorrow with a United flight back east, three weeks of new old friends, family and sights. I sometimes wore the same shirt and jeans for a month.The only people my well-worn appearance might bother were the shoppers at Safeway and Walgreens and they too weren’t dressed for a job interview.īut this morning I’m getting spruced up. Like others, it’s fair to say, or at least like other oldies, I had not purchased any new clothing in a year.

Maccy stores