San Francisco Centre Renamed To Emporium Centre

[storewanderer]

I do think we need to see how this Bloomingdale's does once the Macy's closes. This new CEO who is a Bloomingdale's person- you have to wonder is he going to use this as a strategy close Macy's that are near Bloomingdale's Stores to try to prop up the Bloomingdale's results?

There has to be some demand for a department store in downtown San Francisco even after everything that has happened and now that will go to Bloomingdale's and to this Emporium Center.

Also as noted the Macys in Union Square that is closing has 400 UFCW represented employees. I cannot find any information on if the Bloomingdales is UFCW represented or how many employees it has. Is this Macys closure also motivated at getting rid of the union?

[buckguy]

Bloomingdale's core customer is different from Macy's and Macy has used Bloomingdale's to address redundancies where it makes sense. After the May-Federated merger, they converted quite a number of redundant stores to Bloomingdale's such as the former Macy's at Lenox Square in Atlanta and several malls in the NYC (former Bambergers) and LA areas (former Broadways and Robinson-Mays). The Chevy Chase, MD store replaced a Hecht's that was rather close to an existing store.

[pseudo3d]

If a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's opened up inside, then maybe the shoppers would come back.

Maybe...but Bristol Farms was one of the first victims of the mall. Admittedly, there were a lot of problems...a basement location split in two storefronts, and owned by SuperValu (which promptly killed the idea of any further NorCal expansion of Bristol Farms). When it closed in 2017, it was not replaced by any other grocery store.

[Alpha8472]

I do think we need to see how this Bloomingdale's does once the Macy's closes. This new CEO who is a Bloomingdale's person- you have to wonder is he going to use this as a strategy close Macy's that are near Bloomingdale's Stores to try to prop up the Bloomingdale's results?

There has to be some demand for a department store in downtown San Francisco even after everything that has happened and now that will go to Bloomingdale's and to this Emporium Center.

Also as noted the Macys in Union Square that is closing has 400 UFCW represented employees. I cannot find any information on if the Bloomingdales is UFCW represented or how many employees it has. Is this Macys closure also motivated at getting rid of the union?

The only other union department store nearby is the Macy's Furniture in Pleasanton, California.

https://ufcw5.org/pdf/union-service-guide.pdf

[storewanderer]

If a Whole Foods or Trader Joe's opened up inside, then maybe the shoppers would come back.

Maybe...but Bristol Farms was one of the first victims of the mall. Admittedly, there were a lot of problems...a basement location split in two storefronts, and owned by SuperValu (which promptly killed the idea of any further NorCal expansion of Bristol Farms). When it closed in 2017, it was not replaced by any other grocery store.

Bristol Farms closed because a new Trader Joe's opened nearby... and the store was a problem for them logistically. It was a pain for them to supply that single lone store up in NorCal. It had limited space. Most of its sales came from prepared foods. That store was planned by Albertsons and my guess is had they continued and had they kept Bristol Farms, they would have followed with a block of 5 or so Bristol Farms around the bay area which logistically would have been easier to handle.

[storewanderer]

I do think we need to see how this Bloomingdale's does once the Macy's closes. This new CEO who is a Bloomingdale's person- you have to wonder is he going to use this as a strategy close Macy's that are near Bloomingdale's Stores to try to prop up the Bloomingdale's results?

There has to be some demand for a department store in downtown San Francisco even after everything that has happened and now that will go to Bloomingdale's and to this Emporium Center.

Also as noted the Macys in Union Square that is closing has 400 UFCW represented employees. I cannot find any information on if the Bloomingdales is UFCW represented or how many employees it has. Is this Macys closure also motivated at getting rid of the union?

The only other union department store nearby is the Macy's Furniture in Pleasanton, California.

https://ufcw5.org/pdf/union-service-guide.pdf

I have no idea why I thought a handfull of bay area Macys were union. This is interesting. So those employees at Union Square... this is very bad for them. No other Macys to transfer to as a union employee in the area.

[pseudo3d]

I do think we need to see how this Bloomingdale's does once the Macy's closes. This new CEO who is a Bloomingdale's person- you have to wonder is he going to use this as a strategy close Macy's that are near Bloomingdale's Stores to try to prop up the Bloomingdale's results?

There has to be some demand for a department store in downtown San Francisco even after everything that has happened and now that will go to Bloomingdale's and to this Emporium Center.

Also as noted the Macys in Union Square that is closing has 400 UFCW represented employees. I cannot find any information on if the Bloomingdales is UFCW represented or how many employees it has. Is this Macys closure also motivated at getting rid of the union?

The only other union department store nearby is the Macy's Furniture in Pleasanton, California.

https://ufcw5.org/pdf/union-service-guide.pdf

I have no idea why I thought a handfull of bay area Macys were union. This is interesting. So those employees at Union Square... this is very bad for them. No other Macys to transfer to as a union employee in the area.

The union is probably an extra expense for the company but the shrink must be absolutely insane.

[storewanderer]

The only other union department store nearby is the Macy's Furniture in Pleasanton, California.

https://ufcw5.org/pdf/union-service-guide.pdf

I have no idea why I thought a handfull of bay area Macys were union. This is interesting. So those employees at Union Square... this is very bad for them. No other Macys to transfer to as a union employee in the area.

The union is probably an extra expense for the company but the shrink must be absolutely insane.

It is a big Macy's Store and sells a lot of merchandise. It has 400 employees; if sales were that bad the employee count would be far lower than that as many Macys that close have well under 100 employees (but they are also only about 1/4 the size of this San Francisco Store... so... I don't know).

Based on reviews on Google and Yelp it sounds like there are a lot of shrink issues/merchandise run outs occurring. This despite security positioned at every entrance (been this way for years). I also witness run outs at the Reno Macys many times over the years.

[Alpha8472]

This is probably why Macy's wants to switch to small format stores. Instead of several scattered entrances and tons of space to monitor, you could have a single entrance to monitor and less floor space to watch.

If they could switch to a single main entrance and then reconfigure the entrance to be a single entrance tube or mantrap like some banks have.

In order to get into the store you pass through a bulletproof double door mantrap.

[storewanderer]

This is probably why Macy's wants to switch to small format stores. Instead of several scattered entrances and tons of space to monitor, you could have a single entrance to monitor and less floor space to watch.

If they could switch to a single main entrance and then reconfigure the entrance to be a single entrance tube or mantrap like some banks have.

In order to get into the store you pass through a bulletproof double door mantrap.

One big issue with this is fire evacuation. Even if you have fire doors scattered around the store, shoplifters are often not bothered by fire doors and will just exit through them.

I think a single point of entry and a different single point of exit may be concepts that would help keep a better eye on the doors. But again the shoplifter will have no problem exiting through the entrance, etc.