Macy's

This guide to Macy's in New York traces the red star above the entrance back to a tattoo, inked onto the arm of a fifteen-year-old Nantucket boy named Rowland Macy after a single voyage on a whaleship in 1837. It follows Macy through four failed dry goods stores between 1843 and 1855, before he moved to New York and opened a small shop on Sixth Avenue in October 1858, deciding to replace his old rooster logo with the star from his arm. Look up at that star as you walk in; it started as ink on a sailor's skin.