R H Macy Co Inc

A fire that broke out in a women's apparel section at Macy's department store in the Media City Center mall on Tuesday night caused an estimated $250,000 damage, Burbank Fire Department officials said. There were no injuries due to the blaze, which was first reported at 6:13 p.m. on the third floor of the store, according to Burbank Fire Marshal Darryl Forbes. "The fire was confined to the area of several dress racks," Forbes said.

Quick working thieves broke into the Macy's department store at Northridge Fashion Center early Tuesday, stole a substantial amount of jewelry and fled after only four minutes, police said. "The alarm was tripped at about 3:45 a.m. and was loud," said Sgt. Bruce Heschong, a burglary detective with the Los Angeles Police Department's Devonshire station. "Apparently the mall security [guards] were on the other end of the mall and weren't aware of it."

A labor dispute has erupted between Macy's at South Coast Plaza and workers who want to organize. The National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint alleging that the department store in Costa Mesa attempted to interfere with workers seeking union representation. A hearing has been set for Feb. 1 before an administrative law judge.

After years of getting stuck in aisles too narrow to navigate by wheelchair, of knocking over mannequins and of getting tangled in Macy's clothing racks, Glen Vinton and Ellen Lieber are facing the retail giant in federal court this week in a battle over passage and profitability.

A spectator who was injured when a giant balloon at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade went out of control sued the department store Monday for $395 million. Kathleen Caronna, 34, was in a coma for almost a month after a hunk of metal struck her in the head when fierce wind sent the Cat in the Hat balloon careening into a lamppost as she watched the parade.

Some of the country's leading stores are rewarding their best customers with exclusive offers, discounts on credit and bank cards, easy returns and special "welcome" packages. Macy's, a unit of Federated Department Stores, pampers its best or most-frequent customers by offering five "clubs," with successively better deals as the customer spends more.

Hoping to seize on worker discontent at stores owned by Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores Inc., the Teamsters union on Sunday launched a second organizing drive in Orange County, this one aimed at Macy's South Coast Plaza stores. Employees circulated cards authorizing Teamsters Local 848 of El Monte to represent them in collective bargaining, and by day's end had collected 31 signatures.

Spotting a woman struggling with an armful of designer slacks and sport coats, Sandy Kenar swoops in to help. He gathers up the clothes, whose price tags total more than $1,000, and escorts the Macy's shopper to the cash register. It was Kenar's easiest sale last Saturday, the biggest shopping day of the year. For commissioned salespeople such as Kenar, the Saturday before Christmas is critical.

Holiday shoppers fled in a panic Sunday when a man walked into Macy's department store on Union Square, smashed a display case and threw a Molotov cocktail that started a small fire, police said. No one was hurt in the attack shortly after 4:10 p.m., but shoppers were evacuated from the first floor of the busy department store, officials said. Police arrested Devon Andrede, 36, of Los Angeles in connection with the attack. He also is suspected of shoplifting, officials said.

Macy's West, the San Francisco-based division of Federated Department Stores' Macy's unit, said it has agreed in principle to sell its Hawthorne Plaza store to Hawthorne Renaissance Co., which operates the retail center, for $1 million. Macy's West said it will donate the proceeds to the Hawthorne Redevelopment Agency and other groups. Macy's will close the store, whose sales have been declining, Dec. 24. Its 44 employees will be offered jobs at other stores.