There Is No Santa

….at least until November 26th.

Macy’s is probably not on most people’s must see list when they visit New York but I found it very interesting. Most of us know exactly where it is in Manhattan, 34th Street and Broadway. It is just one avenue west of the Empire State Building so it is very easy to incorporate into your tour schedule. It takes up a full block and nine full floors. The sign outside boasts that it is the largest store in the world. I don’t know about that but it is a lot of store.

Inside and out you see the results of multiple remodels that makes the store look like any Macy’s anywhere in the country. What is different here are the odd spots that have escaped dozens of renovations over the years. One thing that really stands out is the old totally wooden escalators. I had no idea such a thing existed. Another is the large bank of elevators . On a Saturday you can see people standing six or eight deep impatiently waiting for a door to open pinning their hopes on the one they are standing in front of will be next. They watch the lighted numbers as they go up and down as if it were a horse race and then their hopes are dashed as it suddenly stalls two floors away. Four doors over an elevator opens and the whole group rushes over knowing that only a fraction will be able to fit in the compartment. This goes on and on all day. Fortunately we were tipped off to an express elevator that is located off to a corner of the store far from the madding crowd.

Also hard to miss is the Santa Claus booth. Of course it is empty for eleven months of the year but it is maintained year round since the store is more associated with Christmas than any other. A sign next to it tells a bit of the story including the fact that eighty percent of “Miracle On 34th Street” was actually filmed inside the store. I also found out that the Thanksgiving Day Parade route was changed just last year and now goes down Seventh Avenue right outside our apartment windows!

Our view of Seventh Avenue:

There is more to see in the area around Macy’s. Right outside the front doors is Herald Square which has been blocked to car traffic and is now a pedestrian mall area. There is a proposal to convert 34th Street into a pedestrian mall from Seventh Avenue to Sixth Avenue, from Macy's to the Empire State Building. Also 34th Street has tons of shopping and will really take you back to the days when downtown department store shopping thrived in every city. Most of the stores and storefronts have changed to names familiar today like Old Navy but the footprints are still the same and it doesn’t take much imagination to see how it once was.