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No surprises here: H&M relies on the city's "fashion drones," who purchase up to three truckloads of cheap, throwaway clothing per day to turn a profit, while Macy's depends on tourists. These are just some of the startling revelations in NY Mag's feature package The Profit Calculator, a look at how different businesses in New York make money.
Disclosed in the piece: H&M gives its sweatshops vendors only two weeks to turn out clothing for the chain and hires students, to whom it can pay lower wages. Macy's gets a ton of foot traffic in on the ground floor from tourists, who, we imagine, become inevitably become trapped in the maze-like windowless store and eventually, purchase one or two items before finding their way out. An important fact that New York Magazine neglected to include is that many Macy's employees work on commission, meaning they have to sell a certain dollar amount just to break even each week and they make a percentage on any sales on top of that, forcing them to compete with each other while breathing down every customers neck. That, and they've gotta push Macy's credit cards. What a great system.
· The Profit Calculator [NY Mag]