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Macy’s just made a major fashion move that has shoppers clutching their wallets — and economists raising an eyebrow.
The beloved department store is now selling pre-owned Hermès Birkin bags, the ultra-elite arm candy long considered fashion’s most exclusive flex.
The handbag that can cost as much as a used car and is harder to score than a reservation at Rao’s is officially popping up at America’s most middle-of-the-mall department store.
It’s a choice that is making fashion lovers do a double take because let’s face it — Macy’s and Birkin bags don’t sound like they belong in the same sentence.
On Macy’s online page dedicated to “Pre-owned Hermès,” the used Birkins range in price from roughly $16,000 to more than $33,000, offered through a partnership with luxury resale platform Rebag.
Sizes, colors and conditions vary — but none of them come cheap.
Birkin’s retail price typically starts north of $10,000 and can soar well past $20,000 — assuming a shopper is even offered one since Hermès notoriously gatekeeps access, often requiring years of loyal spending before a customer gets the quiet nod to buy one.
So if the coveted Birkin bag is suddenly accessible on a department store’s website, is that an indicator that the economy is going south? Not necessarily.
On Reddit, several users claimed that Macy’s isn’t suddenly becoming Hermès-lite — it’s acting as a middleman for Rebag, an in-person and online store that buys, sells and trades authenticated pre-owned luxury goods through major retailers like Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.
Macy’s just might be joining the resale bandwagon.
“It’s via Rebag,” one user wrote. “I consulted on a project that involved them and Amazon and was pleasantly surprised by the process and QC — far better than The RealReal. Much higher stakes because of their partners.”
Others called the move standard luxury resale drop-shipping — safe, familiar and hardly a sign of panic — though some noted that shoppers might get better deals by going directly through Rebag rather than a department store.
Behind the scenes, Macy’s may be playing a longer game.
Earlier this year, the former President & CEO of Hermès Americas, Robert Chavez, joined Macy’s Inc.’s Board of Directors as an independent director, as previously reported by WWD.
Chavez quietly joined the retailer’s board, fueling speculation that the department store is making a calculated climb up the luxury ladder.
In a K-shaped economy — where wealthy shoppers keep spending, either buying luxury items at full price or on resale sites like Love Luxury, while everyone else tightens the belt — dangling ultra-scarce trophies like Birkins could be a way to lure high-end buyers, boost margins and polish Macy’s brand, as noted by the Exec Sum Wall Street newsletter.
Still, the optics are hard to ignore.
The Birkin has long symbolized wealth so exclusive it didn’t need advertising — just whispered waitlists and quiet approval. Seeing it resold at Macy’s feels, to some, like a crack in luxury’s armor.
And if you can’t swing a Birkin, even a pre-owned one, Walmart’s got your back with a $54.99 look-alike that screams “Hermès-adjacent” — as long as no one gets too close.
