Macy’s 2020

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
rwsandiego
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by rwsandiego »

storewanderer wrote: January 7th, 2020, 7:20 pm It seems like every year, Macy's does this annual restructuring. Store closures. Close some other corporate facility and chop off hundreds of jobs. Overall impact is always thousands of jobs when you tally it up across the closing stores and whatever corporate facility they decide to close.

Kind of seems like they are just slowly winding down their operation. Or are they really this bloated that every year they need to (or more like, can continue to function after they) cut more middle management, more corporate call facilities or credit centers, etc.
The call center closure does not surprise me. Online credit card account servicing obviates the need for this call center and the advent of faster, more comprehensive contact center software means the agents at the other centers can handle different types of calls and more of them. Additionally, the labor market in Phoenix is tight and it is no longer the mecca for low-wage call center jobs.

Regarding a slow wind-down: I doubt it. It sounds like they are taking a hard look at the way they support their customers and their stores. That typically results in a realignment of jobs.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by arizonaguy »

storewanderer wrote: January 7th, 2020, 7:20 pm It seems like every year, Macy's does this annual restructuring. Store closures. Close some other corporate facility and chop off hundreds of jobs. Overall impact is always thousands of jobs when you tally it up across the closing stores and whatever corporate facility they decide to close.

Kind of seems like they are just slowly winding down their operation. Or are they really this bloated that every year they need to (or more like, can continue to function after they) cut more middle management, more corporate call facilities or credit centers, etc.
Walmart has been doing this every year since 2016 as well (I'd expect an announcement from them within the next couple of days). It's not a winding down of the operation as much as a do more with less type of mentality.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by storewanderer »

rwsandiego wrote: January 7th, 2020, 8:31 pm
Regarding a slow wind-down: I doubt it. It sounds like they are taking a hard look at the way they support their customers and their stores. That typically results in a realignment of jobs.
It seems like every year for the past, many many years, this involves thousands of layoffs every January and ongoing store closures. Lately, also real estate sales of very valuable real estate on what were probably a lot of underperforming stores, but shed some really good stores like that men's store in downtown San Francisco. Maybe they were just really bloated before, but it sure does not give much of an impression of stability.

At some point either this stops or you are Sears II.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by buckguy »

By some reports the 30 includes stores that were part of the cohort of 100 locations they had planned to shed as leases ran out. This is the time of year when many retailers esp. those in apparel shed locations---I'm guessing there's less to liquidate after the holidays and they are saved the expense of bringing in Spring merchandise. The fever pitch that comes with January closings just seem excessive, "retail closing porn" in terms of generating clicks and page views on news sites.. In terms of other chains, the big closings like those at Pier 1 are not exactly unexpected but they probably waited to sell as much as they could for the holidays.

They have been consolidating their footprint even in high volume locations like Herald Square--probably trying to cut costs generally and monetize space they can lease or sublet.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by Brian Lutz »

In the Seattle area I can see the remaining core stores (Bellevue Square, Alderwood, Southcenter and possibly Tacoma Mall) sticking around, but it seems like most stores beyond those are already gone or on the way out. With both the Downtown Seattle and the Northgate stores closing there are none left in Seattle proper.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: January 7th, 2020, 7:20 pm It seems like every year, Macy's does this annual restructuring. Store closures. Close some other corporate facility and chop off hundreds of jobs. Overall impact is always thousands of jobs when you tally it up across the closing stores and whatever corporate facility they decide to close.

Kind of seems like they are just slowly winding down their operation. Or are they really this bloated that every year they need to (or more like, can continue to function after they) cut more middle management, more corporate call facilities or credit centers, etc.
I'm honestly surprised the number of locations isn't higher. Besides their flagship locations, who is shopping at Macy's in 2020? They are nothing more than a pricier Kohl's at this point.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by arizonaguy »

mbz321 wrote: January 8th, 2020, 9:29 am
storewanderer wrote: January 7th, 2020, 7:20 pm It seems like every year, Macy's does this annual restructuring. Store closures. Close some other corporate facility and chop off hundreds of jobs. Overall impact is always thousands of jobs when you tally it up across the closing stores and whatever corporate facility they decide to close.

Kind of seems like they are just slowly winding down their operation. Or are they really this bloated that every year they need to (or more like, can continue to function after they) cut more middle management, more corporate call facilities or credit centers, etc.
I'm honestly surprised the number of locations isn't higher. Besides their flagship locations, who is shopping at Macy's in 2020? They are nothing more than a pricier Kohl's at this point.
It looks like the total for this round is 29 stores:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... day-sales/

Here is the most complete list (25 stores) I've seen so far:

Westfield Meridien Mall, Meridien, Connecticut
The Falls (Bloomingdale's), Miami-Dade, Florida
Pompano Citi Centre, Pompano Beach, Florida
Seminole Town Center, Sanford, Florida
Indian River Mall, Vero Beach, Florida
South Dekalb Mall, Atlanta (Decatur), Georgia
Macon Mall in Macon, Georgia
Lewiston Center Mall, Lewiston, Idaho
University Mall, Carbondale, Illinois
Spring Hill Mall, West Dundee, Illinois
Muncie Mall, Muncie, Indiana
Towne Square Mall, Owensboro, KY
Centre at Salisbury, Salisbury, Maryland
The Mall at Whitney Field, Leominster, Massachusetts
North Prairie Village, Prairie Village, KS
Northside Center, Helena, Montana
Hanes Mall, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Northgate Mall, Cincinnati, Ohio
Stow-Kent Plaza, Stow, Ohio
Harrisburg Mall, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Nittany Mall, State College, Pennsylvania
Rivergate Mall, Goodlettsville, Tennessee (Nashville)
Burlington Mall, Burlington, WA
Downtown Seattle, 300 Pine Street, Seattle, WA
Liberty Theater Building, Walla Walla, Washington
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by SamSpade »

A few on that list are removals from more rural Bon - Marche markets.
Northern Idaho will now have only one Macy*s, in Coeur d'Alene, adjacent to the Spokane, Wash. market with its two larger stores.

Northside Center in Helena - was that a relocation after the decay of Capital Hill Mall? It's surprising that a state capital can't seem to keep even one middle - upper end department store. (Dillards closed here several years ago)

Sounds like Macy's tried things in Walla Walla, but overall sales did not improve:
Marilyn M
It was terrible. One person in ladies wear, one in shoes, one in Jr.'s. There was no one to help me find what I was looking for in ladies wear. She was ringing up other customers. And they no longer carry petites. They moved the shoe department into the main store. It looks terrible, like you walked into a discount store !!! The things on Last Act were not even sized. Who has time to dig through a bunch of clothes that didn't sell in the first place to maybe find 1 bargain item. I have shopped there for year's back when it was The Bon. It has really gone downhill. Thanks don't think I will waste my time going there. Quality is no longer their priority.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by rwsandiego »

Spring Hill Mall in West Dundee does not surprise me one bit. It was one of the few "lesser" Marshall Field's stores and, frankly, always seemed out of place in that mall. The mall itself is on a downward spiral. Penney's closed years ago, and Carson's was never very busy even before the train wreck that was the Bon-Ton acquisition. The once-thriving shopping center on the eastern perimeter of the mall is full of vacant stores. The only two stores that seem busy are the Home Depot (on the northern perimeter) and the Jewel-Osco (western perimeter). Part of the problem for Macy's is the surrounding area is rather downscale aside from the old section of West Dundee, which is full of old stately homes.
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Re: Macy’s 2020

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote: January 8th, 2020, 1:21 pm A few on that list are removals from more rural Bon - Marche markets.
Northern Idaho will now have only one Macy*s, in Coeur d'Alene, adjacent to the Spokane, Wash. market with its two larger stores.

Northside Center in Helena - was that a relocation after the decay of Capital Hill Mall? It's surprising that a state capital can't seem to keep even one middle - upper end department store. (Dillards closed here several years ago)

Sounds like Macy's tried things in Walla Walla, but overall sales did not improve:
Marilyn M
It was terrible. One person in ladies wear, one in shoes, one in Jr.'s. There was no one to help me find what I was looking for in ladies wear. She was ringing up other customers. And they no longer carry petites. They moved the shoe department into the main store. It looks terrible, like you walked into a discount store !!! The things on Last Act were not even sized. Who has time to dig through a bunch of clothes that didn't sell in the first place to maybe find 1 bargain item. I have shopped there for year's back when it was The Bon. It has really gone downhill. Thanks don't think I will waste my time going there. Quality is no longer their priority.
The Bon Marche historically operated in many areas large and small, and although store size varied considerably due to this, the stores kept a better variety of merchandise before the name change to Macy's. I used to shop at The Bon quite a bit as they did carry a wider range of merchandise, and even in the smaller stores, they somehow managed to keep a full range of sizes in stock. These days even the bigger Macy's stores have trouble with this. The Bon seemed to pay more attention to localizing their merchandise.

The department store format just doesn't resonate with the smaller, working-class towns any more. This is evident not only with Macy's abandoning many of these locations, but also with JCPenney moving away from these stores. I haven't been to Walla Walla in years and was surprised Macy's was still operating a downtown store there especially when you consider how many downtown type stores they have closed.

As for that Helena store, I think this is the "prototype store" mentioned in Wikipedia's Bon Marche page. It mentioned that the store featured centralized checkouts.

Macy's seems to be shifting its focus to major malls that are still doing well and is abandoning downtown stores as well as many smaller markets.
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