Macy's to close 100 stores

[Alpha8472]

Macy's remodeled the Walnut Creek, California store in November of 2015. This is by far the nicest remodel of any Macy's that I have ever seen. It is fabulously remodeled into a gray and black decor with new floors and completely new fixtures. The store was remodeled inside and out to look like a new store. The city is in a very high income area and Macy's spared no expense. The store was originally a Capwell's which became Emporium Capwell and eventually became Macy's in 1995.

There is even a Starbucks cafe inside. This remodel was done after closing the Macy's Men's store across the street. The Macy's Men's store was once an I. Magnin and still had a very quaint decor inside. The architecture was elegant and it had second floor balconies. It was a crime to destroy the building. It should have been preserved as one of the last remaining I. Magnin stores.





Macy's probably remodeled because a new Neiman Marcus opened up a couple of years ago a few hundred feet away. Neiman Marcus is way too expensive, and it seems to get less business than Macy's.

[storewanderer]

This list shows what some landlords find as bottom performers. http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news ... st-at.html

Was a little surprised to see the local location on this list but think it is unproductive due to taking two anchor spaces in the mall plus half of an old Pak N Save across the street for its furniture store.

[Alpha8472]

I am not surprised at the Macy's closure at Sunvalley Mall in Concord, California. There are two Macy's stores at the mall. The Men's/Furniture store is a converted Emporium Capwell. The store actually does decent business, but the Men's clothing can easily be consolidated into the Macy's Women's store. Where is all that furniture going to go?

The sight of an empty anchor store will certainly blight the mall. I do not know of any chain that would want to set up shop at this mediocre mall. There is already a JCPenney and Sears at the mall. A Nordstrom would not fit in here due to the middle class area surrounding the mall.

[Brian Lutz]

I see the South Towne location in Sandy UT as one of the most underperforming stores on the list. I've been there a couple of times, and the store itself (presumably a former ZCMI) seemed to be decent, but the mall it is in is rather marginal, or at least it was when I last visited. The other anchors are Dillard's, JCPenney and Forever 21, and the interior seems rather cramped and weird (a lot of the mall seems to be in what amounts to a giant basement.) There does seem to be a remodeling effort underway on the property to turn it into something more in line with the whole lifestyle center bit that's popular these days, so we'll see how that goes. If the Macy's was to close I'm not sure what would replace it though. My first thought would be a theater (which seems to be a popular use for empty big anchor spaces these days) but the Jordan Commons Megaplex theater (a very nice theater with 20 screens and all sorts of nice little touches) is only about a mile from there, so I can't see there being room for one there.

[steps]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the 3 Macy's at Del Amo mall in Torrance, California. They have a 3 story women's only store, a Men's store and a Furniture store. They *might* have consolidated the men's/furniture store into one but, I'm not too sure. The "main" mall recently received a face lift and they are still working on the other half where Sears is located (big surprise). The mall receives a lot of traffic now, especially the out door portion with the restaurants and trendy shops.

The old, unremodeled portion of the mall is currently being renovated and is still slightly dead but, I've noticed a lot more traffic in that portion now, that is where the furniture store is/was. Interesting that you HAVE to go through the men's store to get to that end of the mall.

All 3 Macy's are relatively large. I know the women's store was a Broadway and I'm thinking the men's store was a Bullock's. Not sure what the furniture store was, though.

[storewanderer]

Macys has been playing the monopoly game with a lot of real estate over the years and it appears we are at the end of the line on that game. They will be able to raise some cash by selling these buildings off that they own and I expect them to be split/broken into multiple uses. This served well to keep people like Gottschalks and Dillards out of A malls in California who could have posed significant threats to Macys. Macys generously allowed Dillards into Stockton, El Centro, and Palmdale but was able to keep them out of everywhere else. Now conditions have changed, Gottschalks is long out of business, Dillards seems to be in questionable shape itself, and it might no longer matter if Macys lets go of some of these spaces. The sales will shift to whatever store they keep.

I too wonder what will happen in the Reno Mall, if anything, if one of the two Macys is closed. The mall is currently undergoing an expansion to add a Dick's Sporting Goods and was also supposed to have a movie theater but that plan for a movie theater was scrapped. The other anchors are Sears and JCP (both solid performers for those two chains). Dillards is out at a lifestyle center 10 miles south of town with a fairly new store (which they own) and does laughably poor volume. I think the only departments keeping the Dillards store afloat are women's shoes and women's purses/bags which seem busy, staffed, and to be making sales. Volume is dreadful in their home department and not much better in their clothing departments (kids is the weakest).

[Jeff]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the 3 Macy's at Del Amo mall in Torrance, California. They have a 3 story women's only store, a Men's store and a Furniture store. They *might* have consolidated the men's/furniture store into one but, I'm not too sure. The "main" mall recently received a face lift and they are still working on the other half where Sears is located (big surprise). The mall receives a lot of traffic now, especially the out door portion with the restaurants and trendy shops.

The old, unremodeled portion of the mall is currently being renovated and is still slightly dead but, I've noticed a lot more traffic in that portion now, that is where the furniture store is/was. Interesting that you HAVE to go through the men's store to get to that end of the mall.

All 3 Macy's are relatively large. I know the women's store was a Broadway and I'm thinking the men's store was a Bullock's. Not sure what the furniture store was, though.

Macy's consolidated the home and mens into the former Robinsons-May store and the former Bullocks is Womens. This happened last year before they opened the new Nordstrom. They are gutting out the former Broadway's upper two levels for a new Dicks Sporting Goods, while JoAnn Fabrics stays on the bottom floor.

[SamSpade]

I see the South Towne location in Sandy UT as one of the most underperforming stores on the list. I've been there a couple of times, and the store itself (presumably a former ZCMI) seemed to be decent, but the mall it is in is rather marginal, or at least it was when I last visited. The other anchors are Dillard's, JCPenney and Forever 21, and the interior seems rather cramped and weird (a lot of the mall seems to be in what amounts to a giant basement.) There does seem to be a remodeling effort underway on the property to turn it into something more in line with the whole lifestyle center bit that's popular these days, so we'll see how that goes. If the Macy's was to close I'm not sure what would replace it though. My first thought would be a theater (which seems to be a popular use for empty big anchor spaces these days) but the Jordan Commons Megaplex theater (a very nice theater with 20 screens and all sorts of nice little touches) is only about a mile from there, so I can't see there being room for one there.

I never thought South Towne Mall would be a "struggling" center as it is adjacent to two of SLC's more high-end suburbs and excellent I-15 visibility, but it may be. I discovered today that Dillard's closed in 2015 when they reopened the *brand new* store at Fashion Place Mall (in Murray, about 6 miles north). This isn't reflected on the mall's website. I don't know that any room for additional movie theaters in the Salt Lake Valley there would be possible - the REI on the property was a Cineplex Odeon before they closed up in their bankruptcy. The same property owner does own the adjacent strip center which seems to be holding its own with Old Navy, Barnes & Noble and a late 90s SuperTarget (discussed elsewhere on this board). According to Macys.com this is the only furniture gallery along the Wasatch Front although they have several stores selling mattresses.

Stores not on this list that we do know about would be any remaining stores in viable (or perhaps truly dead) downtowns. It was reported in The Oregonian that Macy's was looking to sell the 6 floors of the former Meier & Frank flagship store. Likely reuse would be for office, not retail. http://www.oregonlive.com/window-shop/i ... es_bu.html

A few of the stores in the list actually do really great business per square foot when you account for where they are located -
Bend River Promenade, a leased store in Bend, Oregon: $158. Only mid-high end apparel, home, and shoe department store for hundreds of miles. In a healthy center (replaced Sears vacancy with good tenants) adjacent to Kohl's.

Palouse Mall, a leased store in Moscow, Idaho: $159. College town with small mall, but Macy's does have other small stores in Lewiston and Coeur d'Alene. This store actually closed in January 2016.

[Super S]

The situation with the downtown Portland Macy's is interesting. I wouldn't exactly call the area dead as there is a Nordstrom as well as a Ross store, Target, and many other shops. What is interesting though is Pioneer Place Mall, which somehow soldiers on despite not having much in the way of anchor stores. Nordstrom did shut the Lloyd Center store down, but Macy's is still open there, and that location dates to the mall's opening in 1960.

But the price of real estate has become insane in Portland. A friend of mine recently had to move his business due to a major rent increase (doubled) and I know of people who have had similar rent increases and had to move elsewhere. I can actually see Macy's shutting this store down for that reason alone.

[storewanderer]

That downtown Portland Macy's is not a very impressive store. I would not be surprised to see it either downsized significantly or just sold for some other use. Lloyd Center isn't all that far from downtown Portland anyway. That Lloyd Center Macy's seemed to have more/better merchandise/more high price brands than the downtown one anyway.

Macy's has to get this under control and get a stable fleet of stores to work at renovating and improving. The continual closure of stores is not a good thing, any way you slice it.