How Did One Macy’s Employee Hide $154 Million?

Macy’s, Inc. has hit a rough patch in recent years, with 50 locations closing in 2024 alone as the largest department store company in America grapples with a retail economy that is moving more and more online. But as delivery becomes increasingly essential to its business, Macy’s found this fall that it had a big problem there, too. Ahead of the release of its third-quarter results, the company said that it found one employee working in “small package delivery expense accounting” had made bogus entries to hide up to $154 million in expenses.

Between the fourth quarter of 2021 and the third quarter of this year, the employee had successfully hidden this fortune — with so many intentional accounting errors that Macy’s had to delay its earnings report this week. That surprise announcement on Monday caused the company’s share price to take a 3 percent hit.

So far, Macy’s has not provided much information as to how a single accountant pulled off such a major inside job. In its statement, the retailer did not provide any details about where the money went or what it was used for, and it did not use the word “embezzlement.” Macy’s claims that the employee — who acted alone — is no longer with the company but did not provide any details about their role or title or when they left. (Or their name. One could imagine a few criminal and/or terrorist enterprises who could use someone with their skill set.) The only real detail we have so far on any of this is the scale of Macy’s delivery operation. The company claimed the false expenses made up about 3 percent of the $4.36 billion in delivery expenses during the period in question. That’s just small enough of a percentage to hide for at least a few years. Then again, the “lost” figure would cover the reported cost of almost a dozen Macy’s Thanksgiving parades.