Macy's closing 14 stores, announces layoffs

[OhioChick]

Source: Cincinnati Business Courier

Jan 8, 2015, 4:54pm EST

Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M) is closing 14 retail stores as the company invests more in technology, the Cincinnati-based retailer announced Thursday evening.

The 14 stores are expected to close by early spring. None of the closings are in the Greater Cincinnati market, but three Ohio stores will close. The 14 account for $130 million in annual sales. The company expects some of that to be retained by nearby stores and online sales.

The company said employees displaced by store closings will be offered positions in nearby stores where possible or be given severance benefits.

The company also announced that it is laying off an average of two to three employees per store as it refocuses its staffing. Each store has an average of 150 employees.

Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/01/08/macys-closing-14-stores-announces-layoffs.html

[The Wizard]

1. The Internet changed everything

some for the better and some for the worse.

[olddad56]

7. I used to go to these conferences sponsored by Oracle Corp in the early to mid 90s

and one of those years, the theme was "The Internet Changes Everything". That was 20 years ago, and they were talking then about things that are happening and haven't happened yet. Just thing where we will be in another 20 years.

[JI7]

2. they probaby shouldn't have opened so many stores in the first place

[elleng]

18. They didn't just open stores, they acquired stores,

and its very common that companies overreach that way.

[JI7]

21. i notice there are fewer nordstroms and bloomingdales so i wonder if that helps them

they could focus on just making each store look better and better inventory . i know some people who would drive a bit more to go to malls which have these stores rather than places which are closer .

i think quality went down at macys when they started getting more stores.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

34. Marshall Fields in Chi-town

used to be a venerated place, with great services.

Macy's has turned it into a blah blah bust of a place.

[elleng]

35. Oh Wow!

Did Macy's change the Field's name?

[nichomachus]

3. A clear sign that the economy is improving n/t

[KittyWampus]

19. Or the economy is changing. Your attempted snark is a fail.

[nichomachus]

32. You may want to do some research on the real state of the economy

which pretty much sucks -- despite what the politicians want you to believe.

You can start here:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/01/09/why-you-shouldnt-believe-what-you-hear-about-the-us-economy/

Your attempted snark is a major fail.

[gelsdorf]

4. Moving forward, I wouldn't be surprised if these 'stores' eventually become distribution centers

Purchase online, order gets picked at DC, and then delivered by the new(store name) delivery service. A couple of stores in an area would remain open as full service stores. I think this may be the next trend, at least in my opinion

[OnePercentDem]

10. Most likely not

Either in the lease or the user docs will not allow this.

[femmocrat]

5. JC Penney is also closing a lot of stores:

List at link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/08/jc-penney-closing-stores-2015_n_6436518.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

[tblue]

6. They have SO MANY sales ads in the newspaper

I've noticed that. I'm not surprised they're hurting. I used to like to shop there. It was THE PLACE to shop. Now I look through their women's clothing and go, "Ick!" "Ick!" "Ick!" Some of the fabrics & construction aren't really any better than Target's in many cases. What happened?

Who wears this stuff?

[Polly Hennessey]

8. Who Wears This Stuff

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills?

[Owl]

16. They are all lovely. To each their own.

[JI7]

20. i have worked in clothing retail and many people would buy those and they were small stores

since i'm personally not into fashion i learned from working and seeing what people bought.

the first dress would easily sell a lot although i personally don't care for the colors .

the last dress would not sell as much based on my experience.

but before i had experience i would have thought the last dress would sell more than the others

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

27. Designwise, I don't care much for most of those, nor most of the clothing I see in the stores,

but style is a matter of taste. Poor quality is slightly less subjective, I think.

I was a seamstress in my teens and 20s and I know what good construction is, and most of the clothing you can buy today, even some designer stuff, is poorly made. And the fabrics are crude, unpleasant, synthetic crap. I find better , less expensive things in thrift shops (though, most of the much higher quality, older stuff is disappearing, too.)

[adigal]

33. The Macy's on Staten Island and in Albany are always busy

Staten Island is packed!

[littlemissmartypants]

9. I would this...

But then I remember bell bottoms

and properly filled that bag could make one heck of a WMD.

[KoKo]

14. I'd wear This One, too. The others...NO.. remind me of the early 70's.

The styles and quality are all over the place this year. And not much was appealing.. So, I'm not surprised they are closing stores...but, then the "Austerity" is really kicking into how many clothes we need when there's not many places to go these days and what one wears to work doesn't matter much, either.

[Sunlei]

11. The ONE in NYC is enough Macys for me!

[closeupready]

24. MORE than enough, IMO, lol.

[onehandle]

12. First Walmart. Now Amazon is killing American retail jobs. nt

[KoKo]

13. BUT...with clothing sizes all over the place these days...the Returns must Eat into Profits

for the average retailer and even Amazon.

The past few years I find that sizes vary so much that if you find a top that fits and you want it in another color in the same brand on the same shelf that they both fit differently. Salesperson said it's because different colors are made in different factories even for the same brand top?

So...how do they handle the returns and what customer wants to deal with returns to store or by mail when it's time out of their lives and the replacement may not be better?

With the lowered quality of product and the varying sizes in same brand...isn't it better to just go shop and Try On before you purchase?

[CountAllVotes]

25. with clothing sizes all over the place these days

No kidding!

I do not have a coat this winter as I lost almost everything I own due to a pest infestation during the hot humid summer.

Hence, I bought a coat on line.

It was way to big in places, too small in other places.

I guess I'd need a size XXL or something like that which is kind of ridiculous for a person my size (about 5-1/2 feet tall; weight about 160 or so). XXL? Made in China is the case.

I used to LOVE going to Macy's when I was young. Even though I had little $$ to spend ($4.00/hr. job in SF will do that to you!), I loved to just go and LOOK. I love the store in SF. It is something like 8 floors high! It was a place of complete wonderment to me as a young woman and I loved it!

[Non-Automatic_Belief]

15. The $ is online nt

[kwassa]

17. One Macys closing is of historic significance.

In Northland Center, Southfield, Michigan.

one of the very first shopping malls ever created. 1952.

It is the last anchor store in a failing mall. Also a lesson in mergers and acquisitions of department store chains.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northland_Center

The historic J. L. Hudson Company, a major upscale Detroit based department store chain, built Northland Center. Hudson's grew to become the second largest department store (next to Macy's of New York City) in the United States. In 1948, architect Victor Gruen convinced Hudson's, then reluctant to build branch stores, to take advantage of suburban growth by constructing a ring of three shopping centers surrounding the city of Detroit. Of the others – Eastland Center, Southland Center, and Westland Center – Northland was the first to be built. These malls encircle Detroit's inner-ring of suburbs. At the time, Northland Center was the world's largest shopping center.[3]

Northland Center became the first major postwar development in suburban Detroit and was the first of many forays into the suburbs by Hudson's. Some $30,000,000 was invested in constructing the facility. The first-year gross for the Northland Hudson's was $88,000,000.[4]

Hudson's created new synergy through a merger with Dayton's of Minneapolis to form the Dayton–Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation), re-branded as Marshall Field's in 2001. May Department Stores acquired Marshall Fields. Following a merger with May Department Stores, Federated renamed the stores Macy's on September 9, 2006.The historic J. L. Hudson Company, a major upscale Detroit based department store chain, built Northland Center. Hudson's grew to become the second largest department store (next to Macy's of New York City) in the United States. In 1948, architect Victor Gruen convinced Hudson's, then reluctant to build branch stores, to take advantage of suburban growth by constructing a ring of three shopping centers surrounding the city of Detroit. Of the others – Eastland Center, Southland Center, and Westland Center – Northland was the first to be built. These malls encircle Detroit's inner-ring of suburbs. At the time, Northland Center was the world's largest shopping center.[3]

Northland Center became the first major postwar development in suburban Detroit and was the first of many forays into the suburbs by Hudson's. Some $30,000,000 was invested in constructing the facility. The first-year gross for the Northland Hudson's was $88,000,000.[4]

Hudson's created new synergy through a merger with Dayton's of Minneapolis to form the Dayton–Hudson Corporation (now Target Corporation), re-branded as Marshall Field's in 2001. May Department Stores acquired Marshall Fields. Following a merger with May Department Stores, Federated renamed the stores Macy's on September 9, 2006.

[SoapBox]

22. They will still operate 830 Macy's and Bloomingdales in 45 states...

Still a lot of stores...the place that amazes me is Hawaii and how many stores are there...good thing they have millions of Asian tourists.

p.s...wow...the article also states that in addition to the closures and offering jobs in stores that have openings...the company will additionally layoff an average of 2 to 3 employees in ALL stores, so they can "refocus" their staffing (what a load of double talk bullshit).

Good luck to those that are in closing stores!

[davidpdx]

23. I worked for one of the companies that got bought out by Macy's

fortunately I left before it happened. The department I worked in was obliterated. I happened to go back and visit in the building several years after I left. This was the same building I had transitioned into just after I got hired. The place was a ghost town with only a few employees left. In hindsight I'm glad I bolted.

[RobinA]

30. That Seems Odd

How do you layoff 2 or 3 of a largely contingent workforce? From my experience in department store retail, the census varies that much from one day to the next.

[Renew Deal]

26. The 14 stores that are closing are:

The 14 stores that are closing are:
Metro Center, Phoenix
Cupertino Square Mall, Cupertino, Calif.
Promenade (main store), Woodland Hills, Calif.
Promenade (furniture gallery), Woodland Hills, Calif.
Gulf View Square, Port Richey, Fla.
Northland Center, Southfield, Mich.
Wendover, Greensboro, N.C.
Ledgewood Mall, Ledgewood, N.J.
ShoppingTown Mall, DeWitt, N.Y.
Rotterdam Square, Schenectady, N.Y.
Kingsdale Shopping Center, Columbus, Ohio
Richmond Town Square, Richmond Heights, Ohio
Upper Valley Mall, Springfield, Ohio
Southland Mall, Memphis

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/01/08/macys-closing-14-stores-announces-layoffs.html?page=2

[shenmue]

29. I live in Port Richey

Interviewed at Macy's last year. Didn't get the job.

[Renew Deal]

31. Lucky you

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

28. It's Donald Trump's fault.

IS DONALD TRUMP’S MACY’S AD OFFENSIVE?


I didn't watch the ad, so I don't know if it's offensive or not, but I do know that he is offensive. I'd rather not shop at a store for which he is a spokesperson. Or which he has anything to do with, if I can avoid it.