Author Autumn Doerr Misses Macy's and It's Not Even Gone

When I was a kid growing up in Alaska, our only path to retail was the Sears/Roebuck catalog (which dates back to 1888). My sister and I would open the big book of stuff and circle the toys we wanted, tear out the pages and leave it on the coffee table for our mother to see. Or, we skipped that step and just shoving it at her when she got home from work. When we moved to California, I was a teen and the place to shop was Macy’s, the anchor store in every mall. It was expensive but it wasn’t out of reach.

That’s why I still love Macy’s. In Pasadena, there’s a famous old Macy’s (that used to be Bullock’s) that is still my favorite place to wander.

With online retail taking over, I don’t want to imagine a day when Macy’s no longer exists and I can’t walk its perfumed halls as a sales clerk says, “Welcome to Macy’s.”