Macy’s to Shutter Up to 40 Stores
Macy’s Inc. will shutter 35 to 40 underperforming stores of its 770 by early 2016. The locations represent about one percent of the company’s sales, or $300 million in combined revenue.
“Physical stores remain absolutely vital to our omnichannel strategy, which provides local touchpoints and tailored merchandise assortments for shoppers in nearly every major market,” Terry Lundgren, Macy’s chairman and chief executive officer, said, according to WWD. “As new shopping centers are opened, however, many customers change their shopping habits and often the sales volume of a store gets divided among the new and nearby, existing centers.”
The stores to be closed have yet to be selected but employees will be offered positions at nearby locations and those who are laid off will receive severance benefits. Lundgren noted that the company, which also runs Bloomingdale’s and recently purchased beauty retailer Bluemercury, closes locations each year to focus on their best ones. Additionally, also closed 52 outlets in the past five years while opening 12. Macy’s also has plans to open six lower-priced shops known as Macy’s Backstage to entice middle-class consumers who are more budget conscious later this year.
Macy’s has been down the last few quarters and is planning to experiment with selling consumer electronics in 10 of its shops, staffed by Best Buy employees. The Cincinnati-based company is also partnering with a Hong Kong retailer to sell goods online in China.
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