Macys is a chain of mid-range American department stores with its flagship store in Herald Square, New York City, which, with its one million square feet of selling space has been billed as the "world's largest store" since completion of the Seventh Avenue addition in 1924. The company also operates two other national flagship stores, at San Francisco's Union Square and the former Marshall Field's flagship on State Street in the Chicago Loop.

Additionally, four divisional flagship store locations are part of the legacy of various acquisitions by Macys over the years — Atlanta, representing the former Rich's chain; Miami, where Burdines formerly operated; St. Louis, former headquarters of May Department Stores and its Famous-Barr division; and Seattle, which was the location of The Bon Marché.

The company is also well-known for sponsoring the annual Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade, a parade which was started in Newark, New Jersey by L. Bamberger & Co. and has been held on the streets of New York City annually since 1929.

History
Macys was founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy a Quaker businessman whose religion dominated the island at that time. Macy had established a dry goods store in downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts in 1851 that initially served the whaling community there. Macy moved to New York City and established a new store named "R. H. Macy & Company" on the corner of 14th Street and 6th Avenue, later moving to 18th Street and Broadway, on the "Ladies' Mile", the 19th century elite shopping district, where it remained for nearly forty years.

The Macys flagship department store with the famous brownstone at 34th and Broadway.
The Macys viewed from the Empire State Building In 1896, R. H. Macys was acquired by Isidor Straus and his brother Nathan, who had previously sold merchandise in the store. In 1902 the flagship store moved further uptown to Herald Square at 34th Street and Broadway. Although the store initially consisted of just one building, it expanded through new construction and merging, eventually occupying almost the entire block bounded by 7th Avenue on the west, Broadway on the east, 34th Street on the south, and 35th Street on the north. The only exception is, to this date, one small brownstone on the corner of 34th and Broadway, which remains a separate property. Macys rents it annually for a legendary sum and camouflages it with giant signs. This building is a remnant 19th-century building purchased in 1900 for USD 375,000 by Robert Smith, Macys neighbor at the old 14th Street location. The façade around the building was erected to camouflage it so that it would not detract from the Macys store, and Macys rented the building in later years from the heirs and their successors.

The original Broadway R. H. Macy Company and Store (building), was built in 1901–1902 by architects De Lemos & Cordes. It is sheathed in a Palladian façade, but has been updated in many details. Other additions to the west were added in 1924, 1928, and 1931, all designed by architect Robert D. Kohn. They are all in the Art Deco style. The building has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

The same problem presented itself when Macys built a store on Queens Boulevard in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. This resulted in an architecturally unique round department store on 90 percent of the lot, with a small privately owned house on the corner. A key President in the build up of the company was Herb Yalof.