 Macy's now going to sell several floors of a Chicago store to Brookfield. All a part of a deal that had been in the works for some time. So what does this tell us about the brick-and-mortar future for this particular company and the value of some of its retail real estate assets? Well, first of all Macy's looks good today, but in the longer picture the bigger picture of Macy's It's got a long way to go to fix itself in the chart as far as I'm concerned The only good thing about today for Macy's is that it did get up It's having a strong day and it's starting out the year strong which typically retailers have if they call it black Friday Which happens in November, but typically retailers are down most of the year until the holiday season So the fact that Macy's is starting out this first quarter of 2018 strong is a good sign for the stop But it's not a buy for me a long term until it gets over 43 44 45 And it could make that move this year. I don't know I think tax reform is going to help a lot of these a lot of these companies now The fact that they're changing some things and they had the good earnings Like I said, it could go either way the stock could drop after a rally for a week after these earnings Because it's not a buy for me in the long term until it gets over that number 43 But overall it is a positive sign for the stock that it's starting the year out green because most retailers are in the black All are in the red all year until black Friday and then they scoop around at the end of the year Once the holiday season starts, okay Yeah, we see the gap up here on the chart that we just showed not too long ago Of course up 12% today and if we look back at a daily chart actually which we can pull up This would be a longer term chart We can see what Melissa was talking about there in terms of it's there has been some weakness over time But again gapping up today Melissa Gonzalez. I want you to weigh in here as well We're seeing generally speaking all these department stores rise this morning for you Does this Macy's report portend anything that could be long-lasting I guess here in the future Yeah, I mean, I guess I would have to agree with Melissa. I have mixed feelings You know, it's definitely seen a nice correction after being pummeled a bit in December It is a good sign that the strength they saw in the fourth quarter continued into January And I have to admit the last time I was into Macy's about a week ago. It was packed on on a Tuesday morning But you know, I think overall they're still saying sale same store sales to be flat for the year So I think you know, we're seeing these revisions happening and now they're maybe beating a little bit of those Expectations, but we'd like to I'd like to say a little bit more how it flows out to the rest of the year Some things I'm excited about is you know, they're disciplined approach to promotion And I think a lot of department stores are taking that tactic and not trying to win on discount discount discount, which kills your margins They're doing a good job and focusing on their e-commerce business, too They're still a leader and market share in that aspect So I think that if they continue to improve their e-commerce delivery and also bringing in mobile checkout to their Store experience. I think that there's a lot of things that they're working on initiative wise to continue Improving the company on our trade station platform here We have of course the matrix feature highlighted and yours can gauge your sense of the demand and supply here that we're seeing Of course after this company did report earnings You see that in real time populating on the left side of the screen with Demand of course on one side and then bid on the other listen Gonzalez I want to stick with you because your expertise is in that in store bricks and mortar retail experience You advise companies at the lioness group on how to create pop-up experiences. So if you were advising Macy's How can they leverage the brick-and-mortar locations that they have to create unique experiences that would actually help them compete with what? e-commerce companies can't offer Right, I mean and the more that they can they can really focus on delivering to what your point of an experience You know, I went to visit their their market pop-up that they originally announced earlier this year That just opened a couple weeks ago, and I have to say I was a little disappointed I think a lot of the department stores are still focusing on the product and what differentiates is when you're focused on the brand story and making it Immersive they have an interesting approach by having you know beta there as a pop-in and now Macy's the market But really if they could bring in more events, and if they could really make it very experiential I think that that will help I think that the more that they leverage the fact that their beauty counters for example They're doing more of those tutorials that help me find the perfect match for my skin and things that I can't do online The more and more that they push their Retailers within their department stores to do that the better I think it's gonna help a bit that they're mixing up their real estate portfolio with Brookfield and opening up office space Kind of like you saw a Lord and Taylor did with we work, but if they want to survive in the retail market I think they're gonna really have to carve out more of those experiential aspects Talking about the experience they do the flower show and the spring flower show that's coming up in a couple weeks I forget if it's just orchids or spring flowers. They always I always go to that That's one of the things exactly and that should be year-round Yeah, I mean need to get year-round not just like once or twice a year I need to keep people coming in on back. Yeah, Melissa Armo Melissa Gonzalez just talked about What Lord and Taylor did with we work and one element that we haven't talked about yet It's just the shift that we're seeing in the real estate industry as these department stores Sell some of these assets. How do you think this changes the overall retail landscape when these companies no longer own? The stores and the real estate that they operate in Well, I think that it probably would be better for them not to own the real estate because it's so expensive and They can sign a lease then and just get out from under it If it's not working rather than to worry about selling the real estate and hanging on to it It's very expensive to buy real estate especially in a place like New York City And I will tell you that the people that own the real estate in New York are those big big companies I can't think of any right now, but they own, you know a huge portion of real estate New York You just rent from them you just sign a commercial lease for 10 years And if it works out you stay but doesn't he doesn't and a lot of these companies they shouldn't be buying the real estate I don't think I don't think it helps them to buy their real estate That's probably why one of the reasons why they dump some of it It's better if they just sign the leases and if it's working it's working if it's not it's not I'm just looking right here on Amazon. It's at new highs right now the second as we're talking These stores I would have to compete online if the goal is getting them in the door But eventually if they can't get enough people in the door They're gonna have to find ways to better compete online and I don't know how to do that again I don't you know, I'm not a retail company But these these companies maybe Melissa could speak to this They've got to find a better way to market themselves online because if Amazon keeps you know jumping up and up and up and up You know if they're gonna have to sell more real estate or stop leasing as many spaces and get into the online game more That means social media Marketing to clients better through a social media making social media more interactive all those things Facebook all of them No, it's okay way in here We're looking at an Amazon chart and it's right near all-time highs so get way in here and respond to our other Melissa Yeah, to the point I mean I think you see more of the combination of these traditional brick and mortar is with those digital natives bringing them into brick and mortar Those strategic alliances are helping a lot and if you look at one of Macy's comps coals I mean that's been a thing that's been great in there and their collaboration with Amazon, right? They they're opening up some of their store space to allow Amazon to sell products They're powering returns for Amazon So you're you're giving another reason to drive traffic into your department store And then when people return the Amazon products and they got a little more cash in their product Hopefully then you're converting them to a sale and so I think the more Collaboration to see in that sense. It's not just with the department stores I mean you're even seeing that with the mall operators in real estate bringing in these digital natives Putting down big bets and signage and letting people know hey, we are current We do have the hottest brands online come touch feel and experiment with them in person And you know, I think it makes a lot of sense to unlock some of these larger footprint Properties because stores don't need as big of a footprint scaling down to a smaller footprint makes you more disciplined on inventory And you can do dropship So if you open up that space for that touch feel rich experience and then leverage the benefits of online I mean, that's the mix that a lot of these department stores and retailers need to continue to invest in Ladies I feel like we could talk retail all day long Unfortunately, we got to let both of you go but we really appreciate it here Of course Melissa Gonzalez the CEO and founder of the lioness group and Melissa arm of the founder of the stocks wish as well Thanks again