• Crains, Wednesday, June 29, 2011 9:15 AM

Last month, Macy's launched "The Workshop at Macy's," a vendor-development program for women- and minority-owned businesses. The four-and-a-half-day boot camp aims to teach them how to get their merchandise onto Macy's shelves.

Though woman- and minority-owned fashion businesses are plentiful, it's often difficult for them to become vendors to department and specialty stores.

"You have to be of a certain size to supply not just New York [stores] but [those] across the country," said John Robinson, president and CEO of the New York City-based National Minority Business Council. "Yet many minority- and women-owned firms are still in growth mode."

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