Bloomingdale's

19th century

20th century

As the 20th century dawned, Bloomingdale's embraced innovative retail practices. The introduction of the department store window display in the late 19th century set a trend, making the store more visually appealing and attracting attention from passersby. This approach contributed to the store's reputation for being fashion-forward.^[4]

By 1902, the store grew to occupy 80 percent of the city block between 58th St. and 59th St. to the north and south, and Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue to the east and west.^[5]

After the New York City Subway debuted, the store's primary entrance was shifted to its Lexington Avenue side in 1918 to draw customers coming from the nearby IRT Lexington Avenue Line stop at 59th Street and Lexington Avenue. Given that the U.S. was involved in World War I, Samuel Bloomingdale gave the American Red Cross free use of an entire floor there until the war ended. By 1927, after acquiring all the remaining portions along it, Bloomingdale's controlled 100 percent of the block, expanding the store's size to 84,000 square feet (later nearly quadrupled via newly added floor space).^[5]

Like most publicly traded companies, Bloomingdale's faced severe financial problems following the Black Tuesday stock market crash in 1929, and it merged with the newly created Federated Department Stores in early 1930, which helped it survive the Great Depression.^[4]

21st century

In 2004, the company returned once again to downtown Manhattan, opening an 82,000-square-foot store – featuring an "edited" selection of the flagship store's offerings – in SoHo.

In 2007, Bloomingdale’s expanded into San Diego (Fashion Valley) and Costa Mesa (South Coast Plaza), once again by replacing former Robinsons-May stores that closed in 2006, in each case because there were already existing Macy's stores in each mall. In 2006, Bloomingdale's opened its largest store save its Manhattan flagship in San Francisco's Union Square, 330,000 sq ft (31,000 m²) in area.

On June 1, 2007, Federated Stores changed its corporate name to Macy's, given its more robust name recognition, but left its Bloomingdale's store names intact.^[5]

On February 14, 2008, parent company Macy's, Inc. announced plans to enter the Phoenix market with a 180,000-square-foot store by 2009.^[8] Arizona would have been the thirteenth state to have a Bloomingdale's store location, with this store being the tenth in the western U.S. and 41st throughout the chain.^[9] This store never materialized as a result of the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009.

In May 2008, Bloomingdale's began the phase-out of its Bloomingdale's By Mail catalog to greater emphasize its rapidly growing online presence at bloomingdales.com. On September 10, 2008, Macy's announced plans to open three new Bloomingdale's stores, two modeled after its SoHo store. One was intended to be a three-level 82,000-square-foot (7,600 m²) anchor store at The Shops at Georgetown Park in Washington, D.C.,^[10] but the plan collapsed after the mall's parent company declared bankruptcy. The other two stores were completed, including a new 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m²) branch at Westfield Valley Fair in San Jose, California, ^[11] and a 205,000 sq ft (19,000 m²) store in Santa Monica Place, in Santa Monica, CA. The latter debuted in early 2010. San Jose's debut was delayed until 2020, primarily due to the Great Recession, and Santa Monica closed in 2021 due to subpar performance.^[5]

In February 2010, Macy's launched Bloomingdale's first international location in Dubai. As is the case for rival Saks Fifth Avenue, the global presence for Bloomingdale's is operated under license by a local interest: in this case, Al Tayer Group LLC, a leading UAE-based conglomerate.^[12] Bloomingdale's CEO announced that the Dubai store would most likely be the only store outside of the U.S.^[13] (The company's leaders later had a change of heart, and opened a branch in Kuwait in 2017.) Later in 2010, the company launched its first outlet store at Potomac Mills, located outside of Washington, D.C.^[5]

In 2012, Macy's Inc. closed four Bloomingdale's stores, one each in the Minneapolis (Mall of America), Atlanta (Perimeter), Washington DC (White Flint), and Chicago (Oak Brook) areas.^[14][15]

In late 2019, Macy's announced that fur would no longer be sold in any of its stores, including Bloomingdale's department & outlet stores, as of the end of the 2020 fiscal year.^[16]

As part of an initiative to better establish its New York flagship store as a "retail destination," designed to allure shoppers who primarily purchase department store goods online, Bloomingdale's introduced new departments and offerings throughout the decade, including a branch of Magnolia Bakery and a boutique for Sarah Jessica Parker's SJC Collection shoe line. It was the first department store in New York to offer the latter. In 2018 and 2019, Bloomingdale's remodeled nearly 200,000 square feet inside the store, wholly revamping its denim, cosmetics, shoes, and women's contemporary clothing departments.^[5]

In March 2020, Macy's, Inc. announced that it would temporarily close all Bloomingdale's and Macy's locations as a result of the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic.^[17] Its original plan to reopen at the end of March quickly evaporated due to the pandemic's rapid spread, as did its intent to do so by the end of April 2020: as was the case with most brick-and-mortar retailers, Macy's ended up closing some of its stores for a year or more, with reopening days that varied depending on their locations. Some did not reopen until late 2021.

On September 9, 2022, Bloomingdale's celebrated its 150th anniversary, featuring a variety of special events and unique merchandise offerings through the end of the year at its Manhattan flagship location.^[5]