Comments
RedditSkippy t1_iz6dshr wrote
It’s not too much of a stretch from looking like that every day, now.
arrogant_ambassador t1_iz6g708 wrote
People really don’t change.
nonlawyer t1_iz6he15 wrote
Yes I can confirm this is accurate, every time I go to Macy’s it is on fire
Drink-my-koolaid t1_iz6htd3 wrote
I see your Macy's and raise you one Norman Rockwell Tired Salesgirl On Christmas Eve, 1947!
thatguygreg t1_iz6mrrp wrote
Looks like the areas behind the counters were all swept out into the main aisle to make it easier to pick it all up by some main crew - no way the employee areas were spic & span at closing any day, never mind Xmas Eve.
Most-Blackberry-4102 t1_iz6q5cj wrote
Good vibes
gigawort t1_iz6qg9i wrote
Crawl back into your bunker.
Duchock t1_iz70j2e wrote
Absolutely... The interiors look pretty close to this even today! The decorations are certainly more lavish, but the counters and general decor looks spot on.
Mindful_319 t1_iz74s5d wrote
While in college I signed up to work at Macy's during the holiday season (they were hiring seasonally for the longer hours). I lasted 1 day in the Juniors clothing section. It was an absolute disaster. Clothes and hangers just thrown on the floor in piles everywhere. Literally. I was there until almost 2 am fixing everything. I hated everyone so much that night.
I quit the next day.
yasth t1_iz79s94 wrote
Eh I mean it cost a lot more. I mean they were pushing 10% of household income for clothes and down to 3% now and for more pieces. The past 80 years are basically the story of money shifting out of clothes and food and into housing, non labor services(Amazon prime bills are way up since the 1940s) and electronics.
andagainandagain- t1_iz7a4i7 wrote
I worked at a similar store around ten years ago. We would find dirty diapers stuffed into displays, chewing gum stuck to items, this list goes on. People are gross.
ChrisNYC70 t1_iz7f87c wrote
I bet it stinks to high heaven of cigarette smoke.
HeavyMessing t1_iz7hwkj wrote
So they were goddamned animals back then, too. nice
whiteKreuz t1_iz7krcj wrote
Not the Christmas spirit at all. Rather the consumerist spirit that unfortunately has consumed this holiday.
Charming-Forever-278 t1_iz7mokj wrote
As boomer says people these days smh
_duber t1_iz7sqcr wrote
I've found used tampons, very dirty underwear and a crack pipe in a Kohls fitting room. This Kohls was in a nice area of Connecticut
switch8000 t1_iz7svzj wrote
Years ago, maybe 8-10, there was a holiday season where Macy’s was open 24 hours a day. It was amazing to shop at midnight, no crowds, and you could just kinda wander around and enjoy the architecture and atmosphere.
andagainandagain- t1_iz7v7y9 wrote
Vile, not even remotely surprised!
lawanddisorder t1_iz807v1 wrote
Fucking bail reform!
Logical_Highway6908 t1_iz82zj0 wrote
Battle of Black Friday, 1948?
Quirky_Movie t1_iz87k08 wrote
Yeah, it could be a photo of now.
Weaponized_Puddle t1_iz89fd2 wrote
*They’ve always been this way
Pennwisedom t1_iz89u61 wrote
Damn those 1940s people with their cheap Amazon prime purchases.
CheshireCatastrophe t1_iz8rs7q wrote
I couldn't agree more - people/customers weren't causing the mess but were the havoc coming in crowds, and the employees desperately having to serve them would have dropped the boxes that things were in behind them before they stored them as they usually might, paper ends up on the floor too, it's incredibly easy to do and for sure more manageable than dealing with people raging while you try to stay organised.
Been there, done that, bought the t shirt
Postalsock t1_iz8y6sx wrote
Colorized. Most color cameras didn't have this detail at the time. This was a good black and white photograph that had color added to it.
PostureGai t1_iz91cbw wrote
>non labor services(Amazon prime bills
Huh? Most Amazon purchases are goods.
PostureGai t1_iz91eby wrote
Consumerism has always been part of the fun, Ebeneezer.
King-of-New-York t1_iz91v7f wrote
It’s not the color IMO it’s the store employee wearing what appears to be blue jeans in 1948.
mullse01 t1_iz94527 wrote
…you mean the pants originally designed as workwear, 75 years before this photo was taken?
jeniesque t1_iz9859e wrote
no it just seemed like the quality was too high and it didn’t have the look of other colorized photos I’ve seen. But it’s legit.
King-of-New-York t1_iz9956q wrote
Typical Reddit, you ran so fast to put out the snark you forgot to tie your own shoelaces.
Blue jeans as regular everyday fashion for the masses did not come about until the late 1960’s, most low end retail establishments not until the 1990’s.
Oh look; A source that’s not Wikipedia.
https://www.vogue.fr/fashion/article/vogue-encyclopaedia-the-history-of-denim-jeans
King-of-New-York t1_iz99o4o wrote
Atypical color process that preceded Autochrome.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Prokudin-Gorsky
That Autochrome look.
QuickRelease10 t1_iz9cqvm wrote
Celebrating that Post-WW2 world with some mindless consumerism and ransacking a store.
yasth t1_iz9drw5 wrote
Amazon itself is a goods provider (actually it is a cloud computing company with a break even goods company attached, but I digress). Prime is a non labor service as it provides free shipping and entertainment.
I originally wrote cell phone bills if you'd like that. One important thing is that until the 40s there were more domestic servants than shop clerks. We went from direct employment that was pretty closely calibrated to work put in (even in the service sector, e.g. pay a cobbler more to repair a more difficult to repair shoe) to weird relationships like paying monthly for the fractional work of the software and network engineers that let you have MS office.
PostureGai t1_iz9j17b wrote
Well if you wanna bifurcate it like that I'm sure the Prime subscription fees are way below what they gross in selling consumer goods.
mullse01 t1_iz9j6r0 wrote
…except we’re not talking about everyday fashion for the masses.
The man in the photo is (presumably) a custodian—he’s not wearing jeans as a fashion statement, he’s wearing them as workwear.
finebydesign t1_iz9qzc2 wrote
ALso a hellhole the day AFTER Christmas. Soooo many people returning shit and spedning gift cards. It is unbelieveable.
PvtHudson t1_iz9ro51 wrote
Reminds me of when I worked at Staples during back to school. Line was all around the store and I also worked the closing shift till around 1 AM cleaning the place up. Not sure how Macy's is, but the air conditioning in Staples gets turned off after the store is closed.
[deleted] t1_iz9ucst wrote
[removed]
Eastern-Albatross-95 t1_iza3ugv wrote
The irony of your post is just too much. About 3/4 of the way down the page is the original B&W.
https://www.messynessychic.com/2014/05/29/behind-the-scenes-at-macys-1948/
sventhewalrus t1_izab7og wrote
If you posted this photo somewhere with no caption, people would say "wow, people these days have no manners! this wouldn't have happened back in my day!" and it would be hillarious
Diva2themax t1_izd724p wrote
I lasted 2 weeks working in the infant dept for the holidays. It was a hot mess w/ no supervision. I would end up hiding in McDonald's & just kind of making myself look busy tidying here & there. First job ever & I knew immediately Macy's was not for me. The one time I was made to use the register I was soo nervous & it was of course a Saturday in December. A nightmare.
Ok-Strain-9847 t1_iz67fy6 wrote
Exactly the same as it would look today, except several cases would be cleaned out and several displays would either be stolen or on fire.