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Macy's · Retail

In AI answers, Macy's appears as a supporting name in lists, mostly for menswear and pickup.

Across benchmark questions that never named a brand, assistants mentioned Macy's in a small share of answers, usually beside larger retail names. Press coverage of Macy's centers on sales and earnings, a different story from the one the assistants told.

Measured September 29, 2026ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and GrokCheck your own brand →

In AI answers

Visibility

9%

Share of answers that named Macy's, with a 95% range of 7–11%. Measured September 29, 2026 · 5 assistants · 1,250 answers.

Answers naming it

110 / 1,250

Position by visibility

#9 of 15

In this snapshot only

In the press

News mentions

6,167

PeakMetrics news index, last 30 days.

Macy's in the headline

1,342

Rank by press volume

#10 of 15

Within this sector

Named in 61 of 250 questions, the 12 most-named shown

Question
Which department stores are still standing strong, and which are struggling?Named by: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok
Which retail chains are most at risk of closing stores or going bankrupt soon?Named by: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok
Which department stores have the best workplace culture?Named by: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok
Are there retailers that use facial recognition in their stores, and which ones have been criticized for it?Named by: Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok
Which department stores have loyalty programs that actually give good discounts?Named by: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok
Which department stores have the strongest protections against identity theft for their store credit card holders?Named by: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok
I'm skeptical of "going out of business" and "70% off" sales. Which retailers are known for fake discounts, and which are straightforward about pricing?Named by: Gemini, Perplexity, Grok
I'm a retiree who's nervous about getting scammed when shopping online. Which big-name retailers are safest and most reputable to order from?Named by: Gemini, Perplexity, Grok
Who has the worst customer service among major department stores?Named by: ChatGPT, Claude, Grok
Which department stores still sell well-made clothing?Named by: ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok
I'm looking for a store that sells good-quality kitchen cookware and small appliances, with lots of options at different price points. Where should I go?Named by: ChatGPT, Claude, Grok
Do warehouse clubs or regular department stores have better refund policies?Named by: ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok

and 49 more questions whose answers named Macy's.

The evidence

One snapshot, measured September 29, 2026. These figures come from one quarterly run of 1,250 answers (95% range 7–11%), not a ranking or a trend. The questions never named Macy's.

How the answers frame Macy's

This snapshot, measured on 2026-09-29, covers 250 benchmark questions put to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok, 1,250 answers in all. Macy's was named in 110 of them. By assistant: Grok 33 of 250, ChatGPT 29, Perplexity 21, Gemini 15, Claude 12. The sector data attributes Macy's credit to a single category, 'Not Substantive', so the answers gave it no distinct reputational attribute.

In the stored sample, Macy's appears as one name in a longer list. In a ChatGPT answer on which big-box stores pay the highest starting hourly wage, it sat among Walmart, Target, Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's and Best Buy, and the visible text focused on Costco and Walmart. In Claude's and Grok's answers on curbside pickup and buy-online-pickup-in-store technology, Macy's was listed with Nordstrom, Kohl's, Kroger and others. Grok's answer named Target and Walmart as leaders.

Menswear is where Macy's had a defined role. ChatGPT's answer on department stores with quality menswear put Nordstrom first for breadth and quality and described Macy's as a fit for mainstream options. In Grok's answer on durable kids' clothes, the visible text led with Hanna Andersson, Primary and Patagonia, with Macy's among the brands named.

Visibility by question intent stayed low throughout: employer 15%, safety 14%, returns and shipping 14%, product selection 13%, and reliability and value each 4%. Among sector peers, Walmart (577 answers), Target (452) and Costco (423) were named far more often. Nordstrom was named in 154 answers, ahead of Macy's.

Nordstrom** — probably the strongest all-around choice if you want breadth plus decent quality.
ChatGPT, answering “Which department stores still have a good range of quality menswear?”

What the press is saying

PeakMetrics' news index shows 6,167 mentions of Macy's in the last 30 days, 1,342 of them with the brand in the headline. Recent headlines are mostly promotional and commercial: a TCL Roku TV deal at $197.95, a Labor Day sale with up to 70% off sitewide, discounts on Christmas trees and a men's footwear flash sale.

One headline is about corporate performance: 'Macy's raises annual targets as Bloomingdale's drives growth'. Coverage is heavy, but most of it concerns deals and sales events.

The gap

The press story is retail promotion, with a corporate-performance thread on raised targets and Bloomingdale's. The AI story is narrower. In the sampled answers Macy's is a name on a list, with menswear the clearest topic where it is described, and the sector data lists nothing substantive it was credited for.

Coverage volume does not translate into visibility. Macy's has more news mentions (6,167) than Nordstrom (7,897 is higher, but Macy's exceeds Best Buy's 5,591 and Lowe's 3,950) yet was named in fewer answers than each of them. Nike has far more press attention (37,047 mentions) and was named less often (86 answers). Press attention and AI visibility are separate measures, and this snapshot shows them diverging.

What to watch

For a Macy's comms team, the useful read is where the brand appears and where it does not. It shows up in menswear and in pickup-technology lists. Its visibility was lowest on reliability and value, both 4%, and on trust, 8%.

The sale-driven headline mix is not what the assistants drew on in these answers. Any effort to shape how assistants describe Macy's would start with checking which sources they cite for department-store questions. This is a single snapshot of live answers, which vary between runs, so treat the figures as a baseline and not a ranking.

The evidence

Where Macy's appeared, and what it was credited for.

Per-provider split

The same answers split by assistant, each with its 95% range. Where two assistants' ranges overlap, the difference between them may be noise.

  1. ChatGPT
    12%8–16%
  2. Claude
    5%3–8%
  3. Gemini
    6%4–10%
  4. Perplexity
    8%6–13%
  5. Grok
    13%10–18%

Appeared in

The 12 questions whose answers named Macy's most often, with each assistant that named it. 61 questions named it in all. The questions did not mention the brand.

  • Which department stores are still standing strong, and which are struggling?ChatGPTClaudeGeminiPerplexityGrok
  • Which retail chains are most at risk of closing stores or going bankrupt soon?ChatGPTClaudeGeminiPerplexityGrok
  • Which department stores have the best workplace culture?ChatGPTGeminiPerplexityGrok
  • Are there retailers that use facial recognition in their stores, and which ones have been criticized for it?ClaudeGeminiPerplexityGrok
  • Which department stores have loyalty programs that actually give good discounts?ChatGPTGeminiPerplexityGrok
  • Which department stores have the strongest protections against identity theft for their store credit card holders?ChatGPTGeminiPerplexityGrok
  • I'm skeptical of "going out of business" and "70% off" sales. Which retailers are known for fake discounts, and which are straightforward about pricing?GeminiPerplexityGrok
  • I'm a retiree who's nervous about getting scammed when shopping online. Which big-name retailers are safest and most reputable to order from?GeminiPerplexityGrok
  • Who has the worst customer service among major department stores?ChatGPTClaudeGrok
  • Which department stores still sell well-made clothing?ChatGPTGeminiGrok
  • I'm looking for a store that sells good-quality kitchen cookware and small appliances, with lots of options at different price points. Where should I go?ChatGPTClaudeGrok
  • Do warehouse clubs or regular department stores have better refund policies?ChatGPTGeminiGrok

Visibility by question type

The share of answers to each type of question that named Macy's, with its 95% range. Each type has fewer answers than the whole run, so its range is wider.

  1. Reliability and quality
    4%2–11%
  2. Trust and reputation
    8%4–15%
  3. Value and price
    4%2–10%
  4. Customer service
    8%4–15%
  5. Safety and security
    14%8–22%
  6. Innovation
    6%3–13%
  7. Leadership and scale
    7%4–14%
  8. Employer and workplace
    15%9–23%
  9. Sustainability and ethics
    6%3–12%
  10. Avoid and risk
    8%4–15%
  11. Returns and shipping
    14%8–22%
  12. Product selection and assortment
    13%7–21%
  13. Loyalty and rewards
    7%4–14%
Measured September 29, 2026. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok. Types with no answers are left out.

What the answers credited it for

The topics the answers tied to Macy's when they named it, as labeled by a classifier run on this site (a Visibility Driver label, not a customer workspace's Smart Category). It describes what the answer discussed, not whether it was favorable.

  • Not Substantive5 answers

Press rank and AI rank

Where Macy's sits among the 15 retail brands with news data in this snapshot, on each measure. Ranks only: the two measures use different units and time windows.

Rank by AI visibility

#9 of 15

  1. 9

Share of 1,250 answers, measured September 29, 2026.

Rank by news mentions

#10 of 15

  1. 10

PeakMetrics news index, last 30 days.

Mention volume is not comparable across sectors, so both ranks are within this sector.

Recent PeakMetrics headlines

A sample of recent coverage from the PeakMetrics news index, covering the last 30 days. Links open the original article.

How this was measured

Measured September 29, 2026. 250 unbranded questions per sector, asked to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok on their product models, with web search on. Refreshed quarterly.

This is a snapshot, not a ranking or a trend: AI answers vary from run to run. It shows whether a brand appeared and which sources were cited, not how favorably it was described. The paid platform tracks favorability daily.

Full method

In an early five-question test, the same brand went from 40% to 30% to 70% visibility across three runs, which is why every figure here is dated and treated as a snapshot.

The questions cover 13 intents, such as reliability, value for money and customer service. A model drafted them, a review pass removed paraphrases and questions that point to one company, and every question was checked so that none names a measured brand. Each was asked once per assistant in run 2026Q4.

Every visibility figure comes with a 95% range (a Wilson interval). Where two brands' ranges overlap, treat them as tied. The figures use all 1,250 answers. The quotes in the story come from a stratified sample of 60 of them, spread across every assistant and intent.

Summarized on September 30, 2026from this snapshot's stored answers. Every quote is checked against the original answer.

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