Macy’s (M) will soon be home to hundreds of Men’s Wearhouse (MW) tux rental shops, its latest collaboration with a major brand aimed at bringing in new customers.
The department store, which already hosts similar shops for outside retailers Finish Line footwear and Lids sports apparel, will house three Men’s Wearhouse mini-shops at 300 of its department stores. Those shops will be run by Men’s Wearhouse and staffed by its employees in dedicated space in or near the men’s department in Macy’s stores. The first 17 of those will open in the fall in New Jersey, San Francisco and Houston. The rollout will be complete in the autumn of 2016.
“We see weddings and special occasions as strategic growth opportunities for Macy’s,” said Tim Baxter, Macy’s chief merchandising officer.
The benefit for these partners is the heavy traffic a store like Macy’s generates, as well as the reach across the country. Macy’s has nearly 800 stores in all.
Macy’s Tuxedo Shops will be supported by the Men’s Wearhouse reservation and group management system that allows customers to easily make and manage reservations and track the status of rentals by others in a wedding party.
The news comes just a week after Macy’s announced a deal to use the concierge tailoring service recently launched by Men’s Wearhouse founder George Zimmer, who was well known to the public for appearing for decades in many Men’s Wearhouse ads in which he guaranteed that customers would like the way they look. But the retailer ousted Zimmer from his position as executive chairman in 2013, issuing a terse statement at the time.