Macys Stores Closing by 2026

[ClownLoach]

If they close all the stores on this list, they will continue to lose sales. With no stores in a market, they've admitted online sales shrink as well so they will lost that revenue. Looking at the three Oregon stores on the list that I am most familiar with. Closing the Bend store in a fast-growing market with lots of high-income households but a huge tourist business is flat out dumb. They have failed to invest in that store and probably should just relocate it to a busier area with a modern store.

The Salem store is old and a dump, a classic example of underinvestment in their stores. They should close this store and open a new small format Macy's in Kaiser Station.

The Tanasabourne store is a newer store that if opened today would likely be a Macy's Marketplace store. It's become a neglected and a dump. Plus, half of the first floor is already a Backstage store and lots of the store is also taken up by Last Act. In reality this already is a small format store with the reduced floor space for regular merch. Closing this store in a fast-growing area just shrinks their market share.

Neglect and underinvestment is the hallmark of Macy's. I get they want to shrink down to fewer but better maintained stores but I have yet to see a chain shrink to success. If someone can name where this strategy has worked, I'd love to know.

It really sounds like the majority of this list is stores outside of their control. Most of these stores are in malls where Macy's could spend millions of dollars on renovations, bring in the best buyers and merchants to cater the assortment to the clientele, and it would not matter at all because the rest of the mall is comatose. I am concerned as I shared that there are stores missing from this list as well. Consolidation of two store malls will still happen except in the absolute flagships as now even "A-tier" malls begin to embrace the profits of reducing their retail footage and adding residential or office components. So there are likely dozens of stores to be added to the closure list and those will be in malls where they do want to be long term.

I tend to agree on the neglect and underinvestment. This new CEO is claiming that he wants to address that problem, but it seems they don't have the ability to fund remodeling and staffing expansion for every store even though they reportedly had cut to the point of being all profitable. The fact that they were able to cut all the unprofitable stores without a bankruptcy is remarkable and might be a good example of shrinking to success if the chain was actually high flying elsewhere.

This creates the quandary they're in: allegedly these stores combined make up 25% of the store base but deliver only 10% of the sales. By just wiping these out they save on remodeling costs and escape from a fate that is outside of their control.

I am concerned however that Macy's control over the industry is nearly zero at this time, and this is where you and I align on the next wave of trying to shrink to success being a problem. So they close the current dying mall stores. But then there will be a next wave of dying malls that will take down another hundred stores and so forth. Will the long overdue investments and remodels actually solve for this problem? And will the small formats actually be profitable and grow sales or turn into money losing return processing centers as the larger formats disappear and potentially push more merchandise out via e-commerce which has a substantially higher return rate? They must have a plan that addresses all of these problems so there isn't another closure wave.

The real challenge is for Macy's to figure out not only how to save themselves, but to deliver enough traffic to sustain the malls they anchor and live up to that term. I am sure there is some "secret sauce" somewhere as all of these retailers do maintain financial databases where they closely track who they "work well with" and who they don't. They have to get to the point where the more successful mall tenants want to be in the same center as a Macy's. They must be able to bring traffic from a greater radius than they currently do into that big mall store. I wish them well but am concerned that I don't hear enough about how to make that happen, and I know for sure that if private equity gets involved then the budgets for everything will be slashed to the bone and no matter what the long term prognosis will be implosion.

[veteran+]

Macy's is and will continue to pay the price of over expansion by mergers and acquisitions.

They are still in too many places that they should have never had a store. They diluted their brand cachet and equity for a long time, basically turning it into an ill defined May Co.. Lastly, this category of retail has changed dramatically for many reasons.

[Super S]

If they close all the stores on this list, they will continue to lose sales. With no stores in a market, they've admitted online sales shrink as well so they will lost that revenue. Looking at the three Oregon stores on the list that I am most familiar with. Closing the Bend store in a fast-growing market with lots of high-income households but a huge tourist business is flat out dumb. They have failed to invest in that store and probably should just relocate it to a busier area with a modern store.

The Salem store is old and a dump, a classic example of underinvestment in their stores. They should close this store and open a new small format Macy's in Kaiser Station.

The Tanasabourne store is a newer store that if opened today would likely be a Macy's Marketplace store. It's become a neglected and a dump. Plus, half of the first floor is already a Backstage store and lots of the store is also taken up by Last Act. In reality this already is a small format store with the reduced floor space for regular merch. Closing this store in a fast-growing area just shrinks their market share.

Neglect and underinvestment is the hallmark of Macy's. I get they want to shrink down to fewer but better maintained stores but I have yet to see a chain shrink to success. If someone can name where this strategy has worked, I'd love to know.

Salem at one point also had the smaller store at Lancaster Mall (now Willamette Town Center), a former Bon Marche. In hindsight, it almost would have made more sense to keep that one open and close Salem Center, which has lost both JCPenney and Nordstrom in recent years. Macy's could have potentially kept that mall afloat in its original form, but that whole wing has now been redeveloped. The Burlington store has consolidated into one story, not sure what if anything is in the old Sears.

I wonder if Macy's owns the building at Salem, given the age and when Meier & Frank opened (1956, predating the mall itself) I could see them riding this one out for a while. Not sure if Keizer Station has space for Macy's unless they opt for a new build.

As for Tanasbourne, the problem there since day one when it opened as Meier & Frank, is that there is a long established location at Washington Square which is relatively close, and is also possibly the best performing enclosed mall in the Portland area these days. The two stores are simply too close together. Macy's seems out of place at Tanasbourne.

[c95xrk]

I continue to be surprised that the company hasn't been consolidating the men's / home / kids / backstage stores with their main stores in some markets. I figured some of the 150 would come from that, but it's obvious many of the full-line stores needed to go. Some do seem ripe to be replaced by small-format stores, but we'll see how far along the company gets in rolling those out.

I'm somewhat surprised by La Palmera, Empire in Sioux Falls, and some of the Central California closures. Sherwood I figured was on the fence given the mall's ongoing redevelopment and how decrepit the store is, and West Valley Mall has been a dead zone for years. I was surprised they renewed their lease in 2020, though I assume it was for a basement rate. I'm also surprised by Victorville and Visalia being on the list, considering the quality of tenancy at both properties has been on the upswing for a while. Equally surprising are a few of the California stores that made the cut, namely Downtown Sacramento, Eastridge in San Jose and Santa Maria Town Center.

I do think there is room for another Bloomingdale's in Northern California, perhaps in the Sacramento region. The Macy's at Galleria at Roseville is highly productive and far larger than the typical Bloomingdale's store, but maybe if the JCPenney in Roseville finally closes, that'd be a good place to start.

[hushpuppy212]

I'm sad to see Parkchester close. It's been in sad shape for years, but it was Macy's first 'suburban' branch, opening in 1941. It was never a glamorous branch, low ceilings, odd layout, but I'm sure the neighborhood will miss it.

[reymann]

Right now it seems like Macy's is a deer in the headlights with the direction of their stores. I think some of these lower end Macy's stores would be a good fit to try a standalone last act store and see if Macy's outlets gain any traction. Some of these other closures seems like it's more for real estate than anything else. Macy's needs to change tactics or additional closures could be in the future.

[ClownLoach]

I continue to be surprised that the company hasn't been consolidating the men's / home / kids / backstage stores with their main stores in some markets. I figured some of the 150 would come from that, but it's obvious many of the full-line stores needed to go. Some do seem ripe to be replaced by small-format stores, but we'll see how far along the company gets in rolling those out.

I'm somewhat surprised by La Palmera, Empire in Sioux Falls, and some of the Central California closures. Sherwood I figured was on the fence given the mall's ongoing redevelopment and how decrepit the store is, and West Valley Mall has been a dead zone for years. I was surprised they renewed their lease in 2020, though I assume it was for a basement rate. I'm also surprised by Victorville and Visalia being on the list, considering the quality of tenancy at both properties has been on the upswing for a while. Equally surprising are a few of the California stores that made the cut, namely Downtown Sacramento, Eastridge in San Jose and Santa Maria Town Center.

I do think there is room for another Bloomingdale's in Northern California, perhaps in the Sacramento region. The Macy's at Galleria at Roseville is highly productive and far larger than the typical Bloomingdale's store, but maybe if the JCPenney in Roseville finally closes, that'd be a good place to start.

They have made it clear they will consolidate as opportunities come along. As stated earlier they are negotiating to finalize plans for consolidation in Mission Viejo where the women's building will be replaced by luxury apartments. If they own the building there is no benefit to consolidation without replacement tenants since the stores are all cash flow positive. But they have already stated on investor calls that wherever you see two in a mall, except for flagship properties (South Coast Plaza for example), they are open to taking offers.

And the rest isn't an official list but rather a speculative list. So Santa Maria is probably owned and cash positive, and I would imagine zero chances the property is going anywhere. Lots of population growth to feed comp sales, but lots of bare dirt to build on for decades before anyone thinks of redevelopment of the mall. So oddly enough I could see Santa Maria slipping through. If it's cash positive, comp positive, not high shrink, and zero chance of anyone buying it or subleasing it then zero reason to close it. A lot of big box retail went up there in the last 5 years or so, upsized Costco and Lowe's, Dicks, and others.

[c95xrk]

They have made it clear they will consolidate as opportunities come along. As stated earlier they are negotiating to finalize plans for consolidation in Mission Viejo where the women's building will be replaced by luxury apartments. If they own the building there is no benefit to consolidation without replacement tenants since the stores are all cash flow positive. But they have already stated on investor calls that wherever you see two in a mall, except for flagship properties (South Coast Plaza for example), they are open to taking offers.

And the rest isn't an official list but rather a speculative list. So Santa Maria is probably owned and cash positive, and I would imagine zero chances the property is going anywhere. Lots of population growth to feed comp sales, but lots of bare dirt to build on for decades before anyone thinks of redevelopment of the mall. So oddly enough I could see Santa Maria slipping through. If it's cash positive, comp positive, not high shrink, and zero chance of anyone buying it or subleasing it then zero reason to close it. A lot of big box retail went up there in the last 5 years or so, upsized Costco and Lowe's, Dicks, and others.

I'd expect it is more likely they'll receive offers on one of the flagship secondary stores, like the South Coast Plaza men's store or Valley Fair's men's and home store, before some of the other secondary stores go away. And for those curious, the company does publish a list of stores with their respective land status (owned/leased/ground leased) on their investor website, if you want to peek: (https://www.macysinc.com/investors/fina ... fault.aspx).

As for the speculative aspect of the list, I still think it's 90% spot-on. I'm assuming they won't start shuttering stores until after the holidays, but I assume the picture will become clearer as they look to offload whatever real estate they own.

[HCal]

I'd expect it is more likely they'll receive offers on one of the flagship secondary stores, like the South Coast Plaza men's store or Valley Fair's men's and home store, before some of the other secondary stores go away. And for those curious, the company does publish a list of stores with their respective land status (owned/leased/ground leased) on their investor website, if you want to peek: (https://www.macysinc.com/investors/fina ... fault.aspx).

As for the speculative aspect of the list, I still think it's 90% spot-on. I'm assuming they won't start shuttering stores until after the holidays, but I assume the picture will become clearer as they look to offload whatever real estate they own.

c95xrk, welcome to Retailwatchers!

Thanks for that link, it was interesting to browse. I think right now, Macy's is still being steered by retail people rather than finance people, who understand that you can't shrink your way to profitability. Hopefully that mentality doesn't change, because once they go down the store-closing spiral, there's usually no coming back.

[storewanderer]

I continue to be surprised that the company hasn't been consolidating the men's / home / kids / backstage stores with their main stores in some markets. I figured some of the 150 would come from that, but it's obvious many of the full-line stores needed to go. Some do seem ripe to be replaced by small-format stores, but we'll see how far along the company gets in rolling those out.

I'm somewhat surprised by La Palmera, Empire in Sioux Falls, and some of the Central California closures. Sherwood I figured was on the fence given the mall's ongoing redevelopment and how decrepit the store is, and West Valley Mall has been a dead zone for years. I was surprised they renewed their lease in 2020, though I assume it was for a basement rate. I'm also surprised by Victorville and Visalia being on the list, considering the quality of tenancy at both properties has been on the upswing for a while. Equally surprising are a few of the California stores that made the cut, namely Downtown Sacramento, Eastridge in San Jose and Santa Maria Town Center.

I do think there is room for another Bloomingdale's in Northern California, perhaps in the Sacramento region. The Macy's at Galleria at Roseville is highly productive and far larger than the typical Bloomingdale's store, but maybe if the JCPenney in Roseville finally closes, that'd be a good place to start.

The store consolidation thing is odd. Reno has 3 stores: Women's/Kids/Backstage (original 1978 Macy's), Men's/Home/Mattresses (Liberty House), and Furniture Gallery (across the road in half of an old Pak N Save) and very low sales per square foot because they simply have far too much square footage. But I think either of the mall anchor spaces are too small for them to consolidate into. So the arrangement continues how it is.

Sioux Falls is a strange closure but I think they must be afraid of the new Dillard's. Maybe they won't actually close there. There is definitely room for both.

They have spent a LOT of money on Downtown Sacramento. I don't really understand why they spent so much money on that store. They have a lot of product in there and that store looks much healthier, from a merchandise perspective, than it did in the 90's/00's/into the 2010's. I am very surprised. I also am not sure if this will work out for them or not on that location. But it seems to be attracting traffic.