Podcasts · Freakonomics Radio

Dying Is Easy. Retail Is Hard. (Update)

· 1 h 02 min · Episode 613

Episode Dying Is Easy. Retail Is Hard. (Update)

0:00 1:02:17

Macy’s wants to recapture its glorious past. The author of the Wimpy Kid books wants to rebuild his dilapidated hometown. We just want to listen in. (Part two of a two-part series, first published in 2024)

• SOURCES:

• Mark Cohen, former professor and director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. • Will Coss, vice president and executive producer of Macy’s Studios. • Jeff Kinney, author, cartoonist, and owner of An Unlikely Story Bookstore and Café. • Tony Spring, chairman and C.E.O. of Macy’s Inc.

• RESOURCES:

• "How Macy’s CEO Tony Spring Is Turning the Retailer Around," by Suzanne Kapner (The Wall Street Journal, 2025). • “NBC Ready to Pay Triple to Gobble Up Thanksgiving Parade Broadcast Rights,” by Joe Flint (The Wall Street Journal, 2024). • “How Macy’s Set Out to Conquer the Department Store Business — and Lost,” by Daphne Howland (Retail Dive, 2022). • An Unlikely Story Bookstore and Café.

• EXTRAS:

• “Can the Macy’s Parade Save Macy’s?” series by Freakonomics Radio (2024).

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The episode on the publisher’s site (opens in a new tab)

Shows are listed from Apple Podcasts' charts and directory, and Podcast Index where it is used. Every show and episode belongs to its publisher and plays from the publisher's own feed; this site hosts none of them. Explicit shows are for adult profiles only, and children’s profiles hear only children’s shows. More about this list.