Macy's — Local services in Roseville

Okay, I admit it; I love malls. While I by far prefer the smaller specialty stores to the department stores, when it comes to a department store Macy's has the rest of them beat - Macy's is like half of the price of Nordstrom, and Sears and J.C. Penny's are depressing, dying relics that are easily hands-down beaten from a shopper's experience standpoint by places like Target or even Wal-Mart. Macy's can still be very expensive, and often sells the exact items that can be gotten online for half of the price, or less; sometimes the price fpr the same items can be beaten within the same mall (e.g., Lucky Brand jeans are often cheaper at the Lucky store because there are almost always sales going on at the smaller chain stores), but contrariwise there are often storewide Macy's sales that, whether you are shopping on a budget OR with an eccentric but larger list of items to purchase you can still end up saving time and money by shopping there.

The Macy's in question that Elizabeth and I visited was the one in the Rosedale Center, a rather nice mall in Roseville, Minnesota. For non-locals, a bit of history; the first indoor shopping mall was first built in MN in an upper class suburb called Edina - the Southdale Center, built in 1956. It is actually still around, though of course it has had many renovations, and I would also consider it a very nice mall (as makes sense, Edina is a very wealthy part of town). In MN we also have more indoor shopping malls per capita than any other place in the world... Look, it gets really cold in MN during the winter, so it makes sense to have a place where you can get lots of different kinds of shopping done, eat, go see a movie and find something fun for the kids to do without having to go out to the car in between. We also have the Mall of America, a tourist attraction in its own right that has its own entirely indoor amusement park complete with multiple roller coasters... I could write a very long, detailed review of MoA, but this isn't about MoA.

Rosedale is not as big as MoA or as upscale as Southdale, but their particular Macy's is oddly the nicest of the three, due to the format it is built from - the rest of Rosedale is a two-story mall but Macy's manages to be four, built around a central open space that serves as transport either by escalator, elevator, or gravity (though that third message is frowned-upon both because of the danger involved {very high} and the fact that it does not allow one to transport oneself up, only down). From this center, it is quite easy to locate whatever department you need; there are directories by the elevator on every level, very clear signage, helpful staff.

We got our shopping done quickly, as we were taking advantage of post-Christmas clearance pricing; I picked up two items for Uncle Steve that net cost was twenty dollars yet two days prior had been marked at (and, really, still worth) fifty dollars each. While I did my rapid bargain hunting, Liz played with lipstick colors in the makeup department. She was wearing a matte, pastel bubblegum-pink when I found her; I encouraged her to try a darker matte pastel ruby; I liked the ruby more because it accentuated her beautiful pale skin more. Alas, we had practically spent down to our last dime and did not end up taking home either one.

I made a lot of jokes and tangents in this review but it really is a clean, well organized example of a Macy's with friendly, helpful staff. I could have as easily gotten a leather toiletry kit and wallet at many othher stores just at Rosedale but I probably could not have beaten the quality or price, and we were not badgered with any upsells in the process. I don't usually shop department stores, far more often I prefer online shopping for convenience, pricing and the ability to tell quality by reviews, but there are times when department stores are really the best option; when picking a department store, Macy's is almost always the best bet, and the location at the Rosedale mall is an exemplary one. Thanks...

Started off the transaction with "are you ready?" Cashier #10996137 never gave us eye contact. I can't emphasize enough how slow she was moving. So I took the liberty of helping her out because she was just grabbing the shirt with one hand & just feeling around the edges for the price tag. I handed her the tag to scan & she didn't even say thank you or anything. She read the price incredibly slow. I'm like not even able to comprehend why. She read the dollar amount, hesitated & stretched out verbalizing the cent amount. We swiped the card & she said we swiped it too fast. When we had to take the card out again she said oh nevermind. I am one for taking my time but there was no reason to be moving at molasses pace. Not to mention the hassle of even purchasing the shirt. We walked up to an employee & asked for help. He said he was about to clock out on break but if we had a quick question we can ask. Do you see what's wrong with this? Is he not still an employee of Macy's? All we asked was if we could try on the shirt & he pointed to a lady who he said would be able to measure us & tell us the size shirt. We walked up to the lady he redirected us to. My boyfriend asked "excuse me, mam?" in a very clear, confident voice. I'm not playing when I say I've never heard him speak so articulate. I kid you not 4 times. I swear to god. If you're working in an environment where you are exposed to constant customers, you should be alert. If you're not sure if someone is talking to you, you should at least look around. It wasn't like she was remotely busy. When my boyfriend was trying to get her attention, she was 6-7 feet away walking to a rack just looking at tags with what looked like no agenda. She finally looked & said, "yes?" (No apologies) We asked her to measure my boyfriend & she said no, & pointed at another lady at the customer service counter. *I noticed a life size sign by the way that said Macy's could measure for accurate size instead of guessing. Clearly something they were promoting. We got measured by her & she gave us a size (large, slim fit) & when we asked THE QUESTION WE INITIALLY ASKED "can we try it on?" She said VERY RUDELY, "yes, it'll just be more work for us" I didn't know our business was such an inconvenience. We tried on the shirt & what do you know. The shirt was as baggy as 90s rappers' t-shirts. What if we would've taken your associate's advice & just bought the shirt without trying it on?

On a separate purchase THAT SAME DAY, another associate did not remove ink tag. When exiting the store, the alarm went off & another associate in your make up department said we could just take off. When the alarm went off again, she looked at the bag & found the security tag still attached to the bra I purchased. This is not a baggy dress. It is a small item. A light item as a matter of fact, why was something as basic as a security tag missed? She tried taking off the ink tag but couldn't so she set it down & said someone else can help you & retreated back to Starbucks. I don't know if I'm just Minnesota nice & just expect this out of people, especially if you're being paid, but I am just absolutely stunned by the absence of basic customer service, or even...

SOOOO many problems!! Website drama, terrible mobile app at least. Very hard to find things, then we couldn't get the order to finalize properly, we had Macy's money available, but it wouldn't use it, wouldn't run our cards, reran 3 times still couldn't get it to use the Macy's money, AND you CAN'T tell!! Nowhere does it say how much it's billing you, and where you're paying it...TERRIBLE! Then we get to the store after getting notice to pick up, and they can't find it anywhere!!! They want us to come another day, & we live far away. No one can find our order, and send us all over to no avail. Even a manager tried to blow us off until another day, insisting it's a shipping problem and they don't have it yet. Eventually, we persist and they find someone who knows where it is & it's in someone's office in jewelry! NOT where it belongs. Thankfully at this point they bring it and the manager helps to fix all the ringing issues to correct the website problem and even gives us an extra discount for the huge wait. Ultimately after all that, the product delivered didn't even match the item in the picture or the description on the internet. I wouldn't have even ordered this item at all if they had showed what it really was. I'll keep however, due to the drama already and the very low price after sale, Macy's money, and extra discount, but not in a hurry to try them again soon.v Also shopping after this issue was resolved, we found most areas had no sales people anywhere, so we never found anything else there and left with just the one catalog item. Very disappointing, not the Macy's we...