Macy’s to close 100 stores
List of locations being affected not finalized
Macy’s will be closing about 100 stores in an attempt to trim its footprint as more customers shop online, the Cincinnati-based department store retailer announced Thursday.
“This country is overstored given evolving customer shopping habits,” Macy’s chief financial officer Karen Hoguet said during a call with analysts discussing the company’s second-quarter financial results.
Sales at Macy’s stores open at least a year were down 2.6 percent compared with the second quarter of 2015, the sixth consecutive quarter in which comparable sales dropped.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many jobs might be cut as Macy’s has not finalized the list of locations that will close, said spokeswoman Andrea Schwartz.
The 100 stores, most of which will close early in 2017, represent about 15 percent of all of Macy’s full-line stores.
“Nearly all of the stores to be closed are cash-flow positive today, but their volumes and profitability in most cases have been declining steadily in recent years,” said Jeff Gennette, Macy’s president who will take over as CEO next year, in a statement issued Thursday morning.
“We recognize that these locations do not yield an adequate return on investment and often do not represent a customer shopping experience that reflects our aspirations for the Macy’s brand.”
Shutting down less-profitable stores will let Macy’s focus on
improving its top stores and growing online sales, Ms. Hoguet said.
While most of the closing stores are unproductive or in less-desirable locations, a handful will be shut down because they could be more valuable if redeveloped other than as a retail store, Ms. Hoguet said.
Macy’s is examining its portfolio of real estate in big cities. The company said in a news release Thursday it is in negotiations to sell its men’s store on Union Square in San Francisco.
A downtown Chicago store on the city’s shopheavy State Street “is still in the mix of our flagships to lease or sell portions of the building.” Ms. Schwartz said in an email.
Earlier this year, Macy’s closed its store at Century III Mall in West Mifflin, affecting about 100 people working there. Last year, the historic Downtown Pittsburgh store closed and a developer is repurposing that building for a mix of uses, including retail, apartments and a hotel.
Macy’s continues to operate several Pittsburgh-area stores, including sites at South Hills Village, the Mall at Robinson, Ross Park Mall, Monroeville Mall, the Waterfront, Pittsburgh Mills mall, Beaver Valley Mall, Washington Crown Centre and Westmoreland Mall, according to the retailer’s website.