I am working at Macy's, I was a sales associate and now I am getting promoted. As any other place, there are bad parts, but if you are smart enough to see the good parts also, it's a great place to learn about retail and to build a career.
ANd to those, too many, who only complain on this forum, if you are not happy, if you think you are better, if you think you can do better, then be better, do better. Macy's is not putting a gun at your head to work here.

About getting loyalties open, all the big retailers are doing it. ANd there is a reason for it - increase traffic in the stores, tracking customers' purchases so the retailers can better cater to their preferences and needs.

About staying to do recovery - no manager expects the associates to clean during the peak hours when they help customers,moreover, most managers will actually pitch in for recovery and fitting room duties during those hours. But managers do expect some activity when there are no customers - and don't tell me there is never the case! Macy's (and for that matter, nobody) pays anyone to idle around.

And about the "greedy" macys wanting to make as much of a profit as it can. Helloooo, what world are you guys living on? Macy's is a corporation, macy's executives do answer to the shareholders, and in order to stay in business, they have to think business first. Maybe if Marshall's Fields and other stores had been more efficient, they would still be around.