Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by TheBigSmall »

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1bskXCPW

While this is no certainty, according to MacysInc. layoffs, all the stores on this list are classified as neighborhood stores and are in danger of closing next year unless their sales improve and/or the profitability of the mall they are in improves.
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by wnetmacman »

I only know of two on this list. They happen to be next to each other on the list.

49. Acadiana
That's a mall store that has been significantly downsized (2 levels to 1) in recent years. Sears left Acadiana Mall in 2017; JCPenney threatened to last year but cancelled at the last minute. I wouldn't be surprised to see this one go. The only anchor that does well at Acadiana is Dillard's. This store was built for Baton Rouge-based Godchaux's, who sold to Mercantile and it became Maison Blanche. Later, Mercantile sold this store to Parisian. It then was sold to May, who made it Foley's. There are no original anchors remaining at Acadiana since Sears. Dillards was DHHolmes and JCP was originally Selber Bros.

50. San Jacinto
This one must do well, because most of the mall (save for them and JCPenney) was demolished for redevelopment. San Jacinto was plagued by multiple anchor vacancies (Mervyn's, Wards, Service Merchandise and Sears) that left the mall nearly empty. How this one hung on as it has is a miracle. It was built as Foley's.
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by SamSpade »

Ones I know:
27 Silverdale Kitsap (WA) - although Puget Sound is certainly a travel barrier, this is one of the smaller Macy's left in the WA Bon footprint.
28 Bend River (OR) - This store has a M-A-C Cosmetics counter, but is small and JCPenney left this town. Bend is a very odd market. Isolated. Mall was daylighted and other anchors are TJ Maxx, Kohl's, WinCo Foods, Hobby Lobby.
30 Tanasbourne Streets (OR) - This was a strange M&F, apparently it remains a strange Macy's. Not too far from Washington Square.
31 Coeur D'Alene Silver Lake (ID) - Small store, similar to now closed Idaho Falls Grand Teton Mall location. Adjacent to Spokane, Wash. market.
33 Puyallup South Hill (WA) - Similar to (Silverdale) Kitsap Mall above, smaller store near the core large stores in Tacoma, Southcenter Mall
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by arizonaguy »

wnetmacman wrote: July 23rd, 2021, 9:28 am I only know of two on this list. They happen to be next to each other on the list.

49. Acadiana
That's a mall store that has been significantly downsized (2 levels to 1) in recent years. Sears left Acadiana Mall in 2017; JCPenney threatened to last year but cancelled at the last minute. I wouldn't be surprised to see this one go. The only anchor that does well at Acadiana is Dillard's. This store was built for Baton Rouge-based Godchaux's, who sold to Mercantile and it became Maison Blanche. Later, Mercantile sold this store to Parisian. It then was sold to May, who made it Foley's. There are no original anchors remaining at Acadiana since Sears. Dillards was DHHolmes and JCP was originally Selber Bros.

50. San Jacinto
This one must do well, because most of the mall (save for them and JCPenney) was demolished for redevelopment. San Jacinto was plagued by multiple anchor vacancies (Mervyn's, Wards, Service Merchandise and Sears) that left the mall nearly empty. How this one hung on as it has is a miracle. It was built as Foley's.
34 Metro North

This one is in the same category as San Jacinto in that the entire mall was demolished for redevelopment. This store opened as The Jones Store in 1976. Dillard's and JCPenney are still open in new developments a few miles to the west of the former mall but Macy's stayed at the mall to be an anchor for the redevelopment project. As of now it's just Macy's in a big empty lot. It's the only Macy's in the "Northland" area of Kansas City and lasted longer than the Independence Center (which is a dying but not completely dead) store.


https://goo.gl/maps/ZBkNvZj51LZWZY4L6
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by buckguy »

From the comments, "Neighborhood" means "non-core".

I haven't been to any of these recently, but there are some obvious malls in decline like Lakeforest (a dying mall in the DC suburbs) and Gwinnett Place near Atlanta (I'm surprised they haven't left already--they may have hoped that closing Northlake would have saved it) as well as some small mall locations like Eagle Rock which are not far from larger, more robust locations (Glendale Galleria in that case).

Parkchester was the first Macy-NYC branch--a big free standing store in the NE Bronx that was part of huge multi-family development developed by MetLife (a twin to the Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper developments in lower Manhattan). The area is mostly working class immigrants and not in the path of gentrification, unlike some other parts of the Bronx.

There are a few malls that have little competition, like South County in St Louis, that theoretically should be doing OK, but a lot of mid-market malls with seemingly little mall competition are dying. In the last round, Macy's closed the Great Lakes Mall store in the Cleveland area which had been a solid performer for decades under May (it actually established the mall as a viable destination for other anchors) and early on under Macy, but the mall has been in decline for years and this has accelerated with Sears leaving and Dillard's consolidating space. It's lost classic mall chains and outparcel tenants. JCPenney does OK, but Dillard's was deserted last time I was there.
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by babs »

I can't think of any major chain that has shrunk itself to success. Closing a large majority of these stores will be the end of them.
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by DFWRetaileWatcher »

TheBigSmall wrote: July 22nd, 2021, 5:55 am https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1bskXCPW

While this is no certainty, according to MacysInc. layoffs, all the stores on this list are classified as neighborhood stores and are in danger of closing next year unless their sales improve and/or the profitability of the mall they are in improves.
I think we all instinctively knew the days were numbered for these particular stores. Macy's has actively been shifting their focus towards investing in regional "flagship" stores.

Frankly, I'm surprised the list isn't longer.
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by Alpha8472 »

Macy's at Bayfair in San Leandro, California was always in a low income high crime area. The mall is practically dying. The only real attraction is Target.

The Concord, California store is in a declining mall that suffered due to the rodent infestations that wiped out 70 percent of the restaurants and closed most of the food court restaurants. Those restaurants never recovered and shut down. It was a newly built Food Court only a few years ago. The mall suffered from robberies, shootings, lootings, and other crime. If Macy's is going, all that is left is a dying JCPenney and Sears.

There are 2 Macy's stores. One is Men's and the other is Women's. The Men's store is a former Emporium Capwell with a Furniture Store on one level. The Backstage store is also in the building along with bedding and home goods.

Perhaps Macy's could close one of the stores and move everything to the Women's store.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on July 24th, 2021, 12:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by TheBigSmall »

The 2 on this list I personally know are both in NJ:
#4 Livingston and #5 Brunswick Square.

For the Livingston location:

- The store itself got a few upgrades.

However,

- It is the lone remaining anchor located in a dead mall with basically mom and pop stores.

- Mall lost its other 2 anchors Sears and Lord Taylor back in 2020.

- Located 5 minutes away from a much more profitable mall, Mall of Short Hills which also has a Macy's.

For the Brunswick Square location:

- Mall is not necessarily dead. It has a decent occupancy rate.

- JCPenney is the other anchor at this mall

However,

- The store itself is very outdated with little to no upgrades, with not that great of a selection.

- There are 3 other more profitable malls that have Macys within a 15 mile radius.
(Menlo Park, Freehold Raceway and Woodbridge Center).
Last edited by TheBigSmall on July 23rd, 2021, 6:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Macy's Neighborhood Store Watch

Post by Romr123 »

South County (MO) is the epitome of the mid-market mall, built in roughly 1962 with Famous-Barr/JCP, expanded in roughly 1979 with Stix Baer and Fuller/Sears. Famous/Macy's was a full-line store in May's round store 2-story prototype. Dillards and Sears are gone; there's been a fair bit of housing growth in the next county south, and the next closest mall (Crestwood Plaza) was bulldozed about 5 years ago. If Macy's isn't viable here, there are a bunnnnch of worse places out there.

Lees' Summit is a bit of a surprise, it went in about 15-20 years ago as a big-box free-standing store in the SE corner of the metro; residential growth was occurring in the area, but it's not a "big shopping" destination (for that you go to Country Club Plaza or out to Johnson County)


Interesting that only 3 of the Michigan stores (Traverse City/Genesee Valley/Fashion Square) are on the list--Flint and Saginaw are undeniably lower-income areas and were original Hudson's builds; Traverse City was a newish build in the only mall in the state north of Fashion Square/Saginaw; Traverse City region has been growing recently, but it's an outdoorsy area; not a "dress to impress" area. The more prosperous cities (Kalamazoo/East Lansing/both stores in Grand Rapids) are probably safe; and metro Detroit is also safe.

Shopping during COVID has been interesting. Somerset (undeniably the premier mall in metro Detroit) seems about 90% full with 90% reasonable/relevant tenants. Twelve Oaks (the premier-mall runner-up) is about 80% full with 80% reasonable/relevant tenants (for these two malls, I don't allow much tolerance for local stores/nail shops/etc). Everything else around here seems about 60/60....and from this list, I'd bet that much under that puts Macy's in danger.\ as the mall gets irrelevant.
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