Macy’s somehow didn’t know that one of its employees was off on the bookkeeping by $154 million

Macy’s has revealed that a single employee intentionally hid as much as $154 million in business expenses over three years, presumably dashing the unnamed worker’s hope of ever becoming an employee of the month. 

The department store said the employee was responsible for so many accounting irregularities that it was forced to delay its quarterly earnings report, as a huge chunk of expenses were hidden. Macy’s didn’t reveal why the worker intentionally hid the eye-watering sums, but it did launch an independent forensic accounting investigation into the matter. It found that the employee, who (shock horror) no longer works for the store, made “made erroneous accounting entries” to hide small package delivery expenses.

That’s money talk for royally messing up the bookkeeping, to the point where a billion-dollar company had to halt its entire earnings report processes. The anti-capitalists among us might read this situation as a middle finger to consumerism, but since the employee’s motives aren’t known, we can’t see this as a Robin Hood-like moment just yet. In any case, CNN reports that the hidden $154 million worth of fake entries accounts for only a teeny tiny fraction of the $4.36 billion in actual expenses that Macy’s lodged in its most recent quarter. 

Some estimations show the department store — the largest in the US and owner of other brands such as Bloomingdale’s — made $23.86 billion in revenue last year, so the employee’s hundred-million-dollar mistake might feel like pocket change for Macy’s. For those now invested in the financial crime thriller (what’s the bet Ryan Murphy has already drafted a pilot?), Macy’s’ quarterly earnings report — originally slated for release this week — has been pushed back to December 11, so that will be the time to dig into the kind of reading materials that you definitely won’t find on BookTok.

It comes at a particularly rough economic time for the store chain, which has been in a state of financial decline over the past four years. In a preliminary report (before they realized an employee had gone inexplicably rogue) Macy’s reported a 2.4% dip in sales compared to the third quarter of 2023. Elsewhere, the store this year announced its plans to close 150 of its stores over the next three years, a downsize which will eventually mean Macy’s has only half of the stores it did before the pandemic. 

Reacting to the news on social media, many users questioned why it took so long before the Macy’s higher-ups noticed the discrepancies. “Bro what? How was this not found until it reached 154 million?,” one person wrote, with another sarcastically adding that the employee made “just a small accounting error.”

In perhaps the funniest reaction, one disgruntled Macy’s shopper quipped “one article of clothing from there costs $154 million,” which rings true for anyone who reads Confessions of a Shopaholic as less of a rom-com and more of a life manual. While Macy’s has not disclosed the identity of the employee behind the accounting blunder, perhaps the department store will do a big reveal and have them appear in balloon form as part of the next Thanksgiving Day Parade. Heck, we’ve certainly seen stranger moments during the annual holiday event.