Macy’s announced yesterday that it will close 150 of its stores in the US, a move that will eliminate about 25 percent of its square footage representing about 10 percent of its sales.
The New York Times reports that “it is the second major downsizing of the Macy’s chain since 2020 and will leave the company with 350 stores, slightly more than half the number it had before the pandemic.
“Macy’s called the stores it planned to close ‘underproductive locations’,” and said that “it expected to take in $600 million to $750 million by selling these stores and streamlining some of its warehouses.”
The Times writes that “Macy’s did not identify the locations, but one is the San Francisco store in Union Square, said Mayor London Breed’s office. The store, a fixture in the shopping district for generations, will remain open for the next year as Macy’s looks for a new owner for the property, the mayor’s office said.
“As Macy’s reduces its retail footprint, Bloomingdale’s is expected to open 15 locations. Bluemercury, the company’s beauty chain, will add 30 stores, and remodel others. As of November, there were 58 Bloomingdale’s and 158 Bluemercury locations … E-commerce sales at Bloomingdale’s give the company confidence that adding stores will boost digital sales in surrounding areas. It said about 80 percent of Bloomingdale’s digital sales are in markets where it has physical stores.”
KC’s View:
Inevitable, I think. Macy’s always has struck me as being the vanilla of the department store business, not not even the vanilla with real vanilla. Just artificial vanilla flavoring. It takes up space, and some people find it useful, but does anyone really find it to be compelling and innovative?
Chains like Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom at least have specific and differentiating value propositions.
In Macy’s case, we’re seeing the long goodbye of a brand that used to stand for something but may have outlived its usefulness.
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