Macy's Rebuilds Santaland Into a Multi-Sensory North Pole, Sensory-Friendly Hours Included

Macy's is rebuilding the thing it's known for building every year: Santaland, the Herald Square flagship's holiday centerpiece, is getting reimagined as an immersive, multi-sensory trip to the North Pole rather than the familiar walk-through-and-wait-for-a-photo format. Shoppers can buy premium passes now, with free reserved timeslots opening November 20, which tells you something about how much Macy's expects demand to outrun capacity once word gets out.

The more interesting move is the access piece. Macy's is partnering with the Child Mind Institute to run sensory-friendly hours with lower-stimulation environments, an acknowledgment that "immersive" and "accessible" aren't automatically the same thing, and that a retailer chasing viral holiday spectacle still has to make room for the kids who find viral holiday spectacle overwhelming. It's a small line in the press release that does real brand work: Macy's isn't just selling magic, it's selling magic that scales down.

Santaland's refresh arrives alongside the third year of Holiday Square, the 50,000-square-foot lower-level shopping space that returns October 31 with more than 35 food and gift vendors, including Eataly, Levain, and Pearl River Mart, plus a version of the Museum of Ice Cream's Sprinkle Pool. Taken together, it reads less like a seasonal activation and more like Macy's trying to turn one flagship store into a standing tourist destination that happens to sell things on the way out.

Source: Retail Dive

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →