Dive Brief:

• Macy’s made news last week with its announcement that it is opening four off-price stores in New York, but the retailer is also working to boost 20% of its stores nationwide into the higher end.

• The retailer said it is concentrating on 150 of its best-performing stores, which will see more staff, more luxury merchandise, more technology, and renovations.

• The company’s February acquisition of high-end spa and beauty company Bluemercury, which will be a feature of these stores, was also part of this effort.

Dive Insight:

Macy’s is known as a mid-range department store, but it looks like it would like to push its namesake stores into a higher-end category as it also develops an off-price line. The retailer already has a more luxury approach in shopping destinations like New York City and San Francisco, and its successes there have been encouraging enough to spur this move. Nordstrom, too, is investing heavily in stores in cities like Chicago, hometown Seattle, and elsewhere— cities that attract big spending international consumers.

So this could all make sense, although in both the luxury and off-price spaces, Macy’s will encounter a new batch of competitors, and not just Nordstrom.