Dive Brief:

• Macy’s on Thursday will open what it calls a "flexible retail store format" at Southlake Town Square mall in Southlake, Texas, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.
• The 20,000-foot store will be called "Market by Macy’s." The new store's space will host "community-driven programming from cooking tutorials and book signings to crafting and fitness classes," for example.
• The location will also debut two new exclusive brands, Getchell’s Apothecary, a beauty shop "inspired by retail’s first female executive, Margaret Getchell," and a food and beverage concept, Herald, named for the department store’s New York City flagship at Herald Square. 

Dive Insight:

Macy's new Texas concept favors interior design elements, like bright lighting and open space, that retailers like Target and Nordstrom are also bringing into new and remodeled stores. The new format also appears to have much in common with its existing curated shop-in-shop effort “Market @ Macy’s” found in some stores

The location is also pursuing a homegrown food and beverage offer that goes beyond the Potbelly sandwich concessions the retailer is bringing to stores in California and New York. The curation element is found in the department store's Story and Market @ Macy's efforts as well. Indeed, the "brand experience team" leading the effort is spearheaded by Story founder and now Macy's Brand Experience Officer Rachel Shechtman. The Texas store will feature "specialty designers and local Texas brands for men, women, kids and the home," lending a localized flair to the assortment.

Some aspects of the effort raise questions, however, like why the retailer has developed a new beauty concept when it already runs Bluemercury, a business with standalone stores and in-store sales that is among its best performers. Or why the Market by Macy's label hews so closely to its Market @ Macy's. Or how the new concept in Texas differs from the Growth150 stores that are central to its turnaround.

What is clear is that the retailer is taking new steps to develop store concepts, and to learn from that, as it ponders doing business on a much smaller scale. After shuttering about 100 stores in recent years, Macy's late in 2019 announced it will shutter another 29 (one a Bloomingdale's). The retailer previously said that it was finished scaling back its footprint.

In its release, Macy's said that more information about the Texas concept will be announced at its investors' day on Wednesday. CEO Jeff Gennette previously stated that the retailer would provide more information about its store strategy at that event.