Macy's is closing 125 stores and laying off 2,000 employees

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

The legacy retailer Macy’s is closing 125 stores -- about a fifth of its total -- and laying off about 2,000 workers as it struggles to shore up sales after a disappointing holiday season.

The retailer is also shutting down its second headquarters in Cincinnati and will move operations to New York, the company announced in a statement on Tuesday. The company is cutting about 10 percent of its corporate and support staff as it continues to lose shoppers to e-commerce.

“The changes we are making are deep and impact every area of the business, but they are necessary,” Jeff Gennette, chief executive of Macy’s, said in a statement. “We are taking the organization through significant structural change to lower costs, bring teams closer together and reduce duplicative work."

The announcement comes less than a month after the company said it would close 29 Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores. The retail giant has closed dozens of under-performing stores, many of them in shopping malls, over the past four years, as it invests more in its most lucrative properties. Even so, Macy’s has struggled to win over customers who are increasingly buying online instead of at shopping malls.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/02/04/macys-is-closing-125-stores-laying-off-2000-employees/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[Warpy]

1. Retail is dying all over

and Macy's was always aimed at the bottom of the upper middle class, people who have largely dropped down to lower middle class and even working class. I'm not a bit surprised that their stores weren't profitable.

This country killed the goose that laid a lot of golden eggs when it tried to end inflation on the backs of working people.

[bdamomma]

42. Online buying

is putting a lot of retail people out of work. Very sad indeed.

[Warpy]

44. Wrong.

More people are buying online because retail has been moribund since the 2008 crash. WalMart played a big part in some of this, but not online shopping.

Online buying didn't cause this any more than the Sears Roebuck catalogs caused the Great Depression.

[bdamomma]

45. Point taken but

2,000 employees are being let go. What are they going to do?

[Warpy]

46. Part time, patchwork jobs

which is about all that's left in retai unless they're lucky enough to land a graveyard shift gas kiosk job.

Younger workers might manage to retrain at a community college, but there's no guarantee that what they're retraining for will still be there or that there will be a demand for those skills. If not, they'll be at square one, but with more debt.

It's rough out there and getting a lot rougher.

[ck4829]

2. "Despite the strong economy", I'm sure

[LisaM]

3. I like Macy's and buy most of my clothes there, so just another crap thing in my life.

I had a Macy's I could walk to from my apartment, and another one I could walk to from work, and they both recently closed. Both were nice stores.

Someone did a piece on the one in downtown Seattle (which had recently remodeled). The store was inviting, the merchandise was good, and the sales were enticing. But it still didn't make it.

Now the nearest ones are pretty much only accessible by car, or a rather lengthy bus ride that doesn't let you off very close to the store (Lynnwood and Southcenter). It's discouraging. I don't want to support Amazon, and I'm not going to, but are we just going to let every single retail outlet in the country close while Amazon romps over everything?

[in2herbs]

5. IMO the land on which these stores sit should be returned to pasture land instead of being

allowed to decay for the next century.

[LisaM]

14. I doubt if they're going to do that in the middle of downtown Seattle.

There's been a department store at that site for over 80 years.

The other one in Seattle (also in the city limits) is being replaced by NHL offices and practice rinks and what looks to be truly, truly ugly apartments. I've shopped there for over 20 years, great quality purses, jewelry, intimates, etc. Nice stores, both of them.

[NJCher]

29. Or

Turn it into an urban community garden.

[LisaM]

36. I repeat, this is a spot that's been retail for over 80 years. It's in the middle of downtown.

It's a (thankfully, on some level) historically protected 7-story building. Before Macy's actually moved, they downsized, so the top 5 stores are already given over to Amazon (God forbid the employees should SHOP IN A BUILDING THEY ACTUALLY WORK IN versus clicking a link to get things like furniture and sheets). They'd rather sit up there coding a dystopian world for the rest of us to live in.


The building (and the one a few miles north) are not going to be given over to urban jungles and gardens. Why do you keep suggesting this is an option?

[lunasun]

9. They do have online with free returns for most items if needed

[RobinA]

10. I Often

find things and purchase them through Macy’s web site, which I find quite responsive and easy to use. With Amazon getting more and more filled with junk, Macy’s has come through a bunch of times for me.

[LisaM]

13. Well, I don't want to deal with the delivery and package waste.

If I were going to order online, it would likely be through Macy's, but I like to try things on. I did order a pair of shoes online through Macy's. They came on time, good price, but slightly too big. However, I needed them to take out of town (for a funeral), so I couldn't send them back, and using rush delivery is terrible for the environment. I am not easy to fit, and I really, really like to try things on. I have had almost zero luck with online buying. And I don't enjoy it as much as shopping in a store.

This is just one more thing that's going to make my quotidian life more unpleasant.

[CBHagman]

19. I agree with you about shopping in a brick-and-mortar store.

People are getting near to claiming that online sales are the solution to everything, but the reality is that there's no substitute for buying things in person.

And I've been very pleased with the customer service at Macy's. Invariably the staff members are nice and helpful, and I know they are carrying a bigger load these days because stores seem so understaffed.

I worked retail for years and as a result actually have higher standards for stores and especially service, but multiple factors have shifted the retail environment, in many ways for the worse. It affects real people, real communities.

[Hekate]

35. What you said

[skypilot]

40. I really, really don't get the appeal...

...of shopping online. To the extent that I do it it is only because of stores closing left and right and my having fewer and fewer choices. Last year I made the mistake of buying some cargo pants online. I usually buy them at H&M but wanted to try some with a slightly different look. The pants came and they were made of the lightest material. I wouldn't say flimsy but just too light. Material would have made a nice shirt for the fall but not for a pair of cargo pants. If I'd seen and felt them in the store I would have put them right back on the rack.

[NurseJackie]

17. They have the best linens (so much better value than BB&B crap).

[cstanleytech]

20. They and other retailers started the slide long before Amazon. In fact the biggest thing that hurt

the retailers like Macy's, Sears, Woolworth's and JC Penny was Walmart with Amazon being more along the lines of the final nail in the coffin.

[LisaM]

22. Walmart isn't really a factor in Seattle.

At least not in the city. I have no idea where the nearest one is.

Of course there are a lot of factors regarding the shift in retail, but I think online is the biggest one. I buy things like Coach purses and Clark shoes at Macy's. They have a clothing line I like. I buy lots of housewares there.

Retail in Seattle is just at a nadir. It's like a depressing ghost town out there.

[cstanleytech]

23. Doesn't matter if Walmart is not in Seattle as they are in many other cities where

Macy's and other nationwide retailers are struggling to compete against them.

[RobinA]

26. I Can't Imagine

WalMart hurting Macy’s. They have completely different merchandise. Why I stopped shopping in Macy’s was they stopping having clothes I liked. They stopped carrying the depth of merchandise they once did and I was able to find a shop, both brick & mortar and online, that had stuff I liked, so they get my business.

I find it very hard to shop brick and mortar, because they just don’t have anything. Best Buy used to have two rows of photo paper. They now have maybe one or two types of paper. I need two-sided photo paper, I have to go online. And so on and so on. I can’t count the times I’ve spent Saturday morning trying to buy something in a store and ended up coming home and getting from Amazon in about five clicks.

[cstanleytech]

28. Consider this. Before Walmart people had to buy most of their goods from specialty stores.

For food and household cleaners you went to the grocery store.
For things like dishes and some cookware as well as clothing you went to a store like Macy's.
Now here comes Walmart, they sale things like underwear cheaper than Macy's so people stop going to Macy's and other clothing stores for those things and they sale cheap dishes and cookware so again another reason to stop going to Macy's.
Eventually though people are only going to Macy's for higher end clothing however as the middle class keeps shrinking and the wealth that used to be spread out more becomes more and more concentrated among the 1% Macy's sales start to decline.
Now the people that were middle class cannot afford Macy's so where do they go? Walmart.

[LisaM]

37. Really? You never heard of KMart, or Kresge's, or Woolworth?

All of those places were around long before Walmart took over.

[cstanleytech]

38. And alot of those are no longer around because of Walmart as Walmart was far more aggressive

in its early days on pricing.
Not so much now but back then it made a difference.

[LisaM]

39. My point is, there were places other than Macy's to buy a variety of things.

It's possible I'm not being clear. Sorry if that's so.

[cstanleytech]

41. Ahh, well still Walmart being cheaper than competitors pretty much drove alot of them

under.
Kmart and Sears might have been able to compete had they not been mismanaged as siphoning off as much money as possible while investing as little as possible into keeping the stores modern and staffed well will not help bring customers in.
You would think of course other chains would have learned that lesson but in my area two formerly major chains (Bi-Lo and Food Lion) are making the same mistake as the owners milk the companies for every last penny as they slowly wither and their customer base shrinks.
Because of that we went from having 8 Bi-Lo down to 3 remaining ones and from about 10 Food Lions down to about 4 or 5 and I expect 2 more Food Lions to close in the next 1 to 4 years as their leases expire.

[in2herbs]

4. I know a woman who financially benefits from a Bloomingdale's trust for her livelihood. It would

be justice if Bloomingdale's tanked and she had to work for a living. (Don't want it to affect others, however, so it's only a pipe dream.)

[cstanleytech]

24. Is the trust money entirely dependent on Bloomingdale's? If its a diversified trust

instead then the odds are Bloomingdale's tanking would have little to no effect on the money she receives.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Death knell to malls. Macys is often an anchor store.

[cstanleytech]

25. Depends on the Mall. For my area it also has a Dillards which has a pretty decent customer service

on par with Macy's as you can almost always find someone to help you in any department right away.
Then again I think malls in general are dying out and we will eventually see them replaced with a combination of online shipping mixed with smaller bespoke stores spread around in areas.

[MarcA]

7. So much winning. n/t

[marybourg]

8. Sorry for the employees losing their jobs,

but Macy’s is the victim not only of Amazon, but of it’s own stupid , ego-driven blunders. I myself stopped shopping there in the early eighties, when I was a suburban mom with two young daughters and a new home to be furnished. They drove me out of the local mall store by blaring -and I mean BLARING - heavy metal sound right at the front entrance where they had the genteel perfume and makeup counters and as far into the store as I made it. I turned around and never went back.

[riversedge]

11. I like trying on clothes, and looking at items-checking them out. sorry to see this happening so

often.

[bdamomma]

43. Again the consumers

and the retail consumers are feeling the brunt of these closures due to on line shopping it has a snowball effect and it is hurting a lot of people to make a living. Amazon good in some ways but not in all ways. I would prefer trying on clothes before buying them.



Plus with this insane regime they are using those vacant buildings for prisons for tearing apart families. Sickening.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. The retail die-off is less bad than the reporting in most cases.

But it's fucking catastrophic for the people directly impacted.

The economy is evolving, and that kind of process is always painful.

[OAITW r.2.0]

15. Remember how Republicans were so concerned with a centralized government based economic model?

No problems, we will have a single market based economy, centralized with Amazon controlling all aspects of distribution.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. "legacy retailer"? They sell legacies? Seems like a cheap shot against Macy's

Writer could have said "brick-and-mortar store retailer".

[Indykatie]

18. I Love Macy's But Haven't Been in a Store in 7+ Years

They didn't lose me as a customer since I still buy most of my clothes from them online. I stopped shopping in the Macy's store when they stopped carrying Ralph Lauren. Returns when necessary are easy as they give you option of mailing them back or returning them to a store.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

21. More winning Trump style.

[Demovictory9]

27. sorry for the workers

[Progressive Jones]

30. More of that bullshit "surging economy". nt

[Politicub]

32. When I first started working out of college, I thought I was so successful to be

able to afford clothes from Macy's. When I was a teenager, I would go into the store and just look around and imagine what it would be like to shop there. This is back in the 80s when Macy's carried electronics and things beyond clothes and household goods. I lived two hours away from a mall, so it wasn't something I saw every day.

The brand still carries meaning for me, although what Macy's has evolved into is not that brand anymore.

Macy's still has good clothes. But there has been something off about it for years.

And shopping is changing. People want fast and cheap fashion. Or the rich demand ridiculously priced high-end good like a $500 pair of jeans. I think the middle class is going the fast and cheap direction because of stagnant wages and less concern about the durability of clothes. Most people just want to get by.

It's a shame that 125 stores must be sacrificed to the gods of Wall Street. This is the fate of all companies at some point because most will not be able to grow forever. This includes Apple, Microsoft and Google, too. They will all hit a ceiling at some point and then go into decline, selling off assets and brands to keep the stock trending upward. Capitalism sucks.

[GeorgiaPeanut]

33. A lot of the closing stores in malls are being converted

to gyms, indoor tennis courts and badminton courts as well as gymnastics training facilities.

[Initech]

34. But... but the economy is so great! Greatest economy ever!

If the economy is so great, then why are our malls becoming ghost towns and more and more people are sleeping in tents? This does not make a lot of sense.