Lazarus was an American department store chain founded in 1851 by Simon Lazarus. It was headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, and operated throughout the Midwest. The store was a founding partner of the Federated Department Stores holding company in 1929. Federated rebranded the chain as Lazarus–Macy's in 2003, and dissolved Lazarus completely with its full conversion to Macy's in 2005.

Family patriarch Simon Lazarus (1808–1877) opened a one-room men's clothing store in downtown Columbus in 1851. By 1870, with improvements to the industry in the mass manufacture of men's uniforms for the Civil War, the family business expanded to include ready-made men's civilian clothing, and eventually, a complete line of merchandise.

Sons Fred Lazarus Sr. (1850–1917) and Ralph Lazarus (1852–1903) joined the business and added many innovative marketing techniques. The company acquired the John Shillito Company of Cincinnati in 1928 (established in 1830), and a year later, was one of the four founding members of Federated Department Stores (along with Williams Filene's Sons Co. and Abraham & Straus). Bloomingdale Brothers joined the company in 1930.

Lazarus developed or was an early adopter of many shopping innovations such as "one low price" (no bargaining necessary, earlier implemented by the John Wanamaker Store), first department store escalators in the country, first air-conditioned store in the country, and Fred Lazarus Jr. successfully lobbied President Franklin Roosevelt to permanently fix Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November, ensuring a stable timetable for the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

Those who worked at Lazarus were not called employees, but associates.

Fred Lazarus Jr. served as president of Federated Department Stores, Inc. from its founding until 1947, and thereafter, served as board chairman until his death. He was succeeded by his son Ralph Lazarus (1914–1988), who led Federated through the 1980s. Various Lazarus family members also held key positions on Federated's board and within its various divisions, namely, Foley's, Filene's, Lazarus and Shillito's. Robert Lazarus Jr. (1927–2013) was the last family member with an official role at Federated, serving as assistant to Ron Klein in 2002, then chairman and CEO of the Rich's/Lazarus/Goldsmith's operating unit of Federated, now a portion of Macy's.

Primarily operating in central Ohio, Lazarus dominated its market, driving the last of its traditional rivals out of business by 1982. Eventually expanding into Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1973 and Huntington, West Virginia, in 1981; in 1986 Lazarus merged with fellow Federated division Shillito–Rike's, itself the result of a 1982 merger between Shillito's (John Shillito Co.) and Dayton, Ohio-based Rike's, acquired by Federated in 1959. The new division adopted the Lazarus nameplate, while assuming Shillito–Rike's headquarters in Cincinnati.

In 1987, Federated acquired William H. Block Company of Indianapolis, Indiana (including Wren's, Springfield, Ohio) and Herpolsheimer's of Grand Rapids, Michigan from Allied Stores and incorporated them into Lazarus. (The Grand Rapids Lazarus stores, converted from the Herpolsheimer's name in late 1987, were shuttered in September 1990.) In 1989, Lazarus' sprawling downtown Columbus flagship store became one of the three anchors of Columbus City Center mall, when developer Taubman Centers constructed a pedestrian skywalk to it over South High Street.