Macy's to shut down 11 stores
 

NEW YORK (AP) -- Department-store operator Macy's Inc. said Thursday it will close 11 underperforming stores in nine states -- affecting 960 employees -- and lowered its forecast for the fourth quarter after one of the weakest holiday seasons in years

Stores slated to close include locations in Los Angeles, West Palm Beach, Fla., Nashville, Tenn., and St. Louis, among others. Cincinnati-based Macy's Inc. says the closures will cost about $65 million, most of which will be booked in the 2008 fourth quarter.

Clearance sales at the stores begin next week.

"These closings are part of our normal-course process to prune underperforming locations each year in order to maintain a healthy portfolio of stores," said Macy's Chief Executive Terry J. Lundgren in a statement.

Employees at the stores that are closing may be considered for open positions at other Macy's stores, the company said.

Department-store operators have been among the harder-hit in the retail sector as consumers cut back amid the recession, hunting for bargains and trading down to discounters.

Macy's reported Thursday that its December sales at stores open at least a year, or same-store sales, fell 4 percent -- still not as bad as the 5.3 percent drop analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting.


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Macys-...-14002867.html

I read in my local paper that only 1 Macy's store will be shut down in Hawaii, the store located at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel. Since it was more for the tourists anyway, I doubt any of the locals will be affected. They can just drive another 20 minutes to the large shopping mall down the highway.

Maybe they should take it as a sign not to have such a mark up on merchandise.

For example, My wedding china pattern at Macy's cost $120. Bed,Bath & Beyond, Lenox.com, & Dillard's sold/sell the same set for 89.99. Now & then Macy's will sell that set for 89.99 on "sale." To me that is not being on sale when I can buy it at that price all the time at atleast three other places, including the company that makes it!

While I am sorry some people will be out of a job at a bad time in our economy, I'm not suprised they are closing some of their stores.

Some Macy's stores are half-empty anyway; I'm sure this is just their way of correcting the market. A lot of places expanded like mad in the past 5 years, whether or not the market really demanded the new locations. I mean, my podunk hometown DOES NOT NEED A HARD ROCK CAFE. Why?!

Maybe they should take it as a sign not to suck.

Not only are their prices assy as you described, their merchandise selection has gotten steadily worse. Although I don't know if anyplace else is better - anyone who has Dillard's and Macy's, what do you think?

Macy's is far superior to Dullard's. Belk sucks ass too.

The problem with Macy's was when it converted all Hecht's stores into Macy's. Those stores were still selling Hecht's crap with a Macy's logo on the outside. Most Macy's stores aren't TRUE Macy's stores.

Hate Macy's. Their merchandise is boring and the racks are too close together. It's cluttered and un-shopable. The only time I go into a store is when I have a gift card. I typically go to the cosmetic counter rather than waste my time looking for something that I will like (I rarely like any of their clothes).

They did the same with Kauffman's. I was going to say I'm not so surprised that they're closing a few stores just because they "added" so many with their acquisitions in the past few years. Many of the stores they acquired were floundering before Macy's bought them, anyway.

I wonder if these 11 that are closing used to be other stores that Macy's bought.

Same thing when Macy's bought Rich's - a long time Atlanta tradition.

I've noticed that the merchandise is different quality depending on the locale.:rolleyes:

The Macy's (both of them) here in Tulsa suck. They do not even compare with Dillard's here. They do not have a Coach section, Ralph Lauren section...actually they hardly carry any name brand stuff at all. The only time I go there is when there is a Clinique bonus, and then that usually sucks, too. Oh yeah, and it is always hot in both of them. To me, Macy's in Tulsa is what hell would be like.

I've noticed that also with the china I had on my wedding registry. Macy's would put it on sale occasionally but the sale price was the same as the Bed, Bath & Beyond regular price. Plus you can use those great 20% off coupons at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Ditto for the Broadway stores converted to Macy's. If I want to pick through shop worn merchandise in an ugly, outdated building with linoleum floors and yucky dressing rooms, where you get absolutely no help from anyone working in the store, I could just go to Marshalls or Ross.

I miss beautiful department stores with elegant displays...where your mother took you once a year to school shop...and then for lunch in the tea room.

Macy's bought out Liberty House, a long time Hawaii tradition. A lot of us were sad to see it go, especially because it was around for over a century.

Since their takeover, I haven't really seen a big difference, except for the logo on the side of the store and the shopping bags, of course. Macy's West definitely made it a priority to keep a lot of local items around.

We don't have the big name department stores like Dillard's or even Kohl's. Just Macy's. Lucky for us, they're awesome.

Dillard's is by far better...at least here. It has a better selection and a wider variety of brands. The Macy's here sells all the "urban" clothes. A lot of Baby Phat, Applebottoms, and clothing of that variety.

For the price, I much rather shop at Dillard's and get some nice looking clothes, then get the belly-showin, boob-poppin-out, bend-down-and-show-your-crack type clothes our Macy's sell.

The Macy's here used to be a Lazarus. I LOVED Lazarus. Ofcourse the Dillard's here also used to be McAlpin's which i thought was better than Dillards too.

I liked the Liberty House. I'm sorry to have seen it go too. However, Macy's West rocks! The flagship store in San Francisco is almost a full block on Union Square. And they have a dedicated five or six floor building (not pictured, but around the corner) just for men's wear.

http://www.mccullagh.org/db9/1ds-4/m...-francisco.jpg

I think there's a difference too between stand alone Macy's and the ones that are part of a mall. It always seems like you get better service or there is better merchandise in the huge Macy's stores that are only Macy's than you would in the stores that cater to the "mall crowd" (teenagers) instead of serious consumers.

A few months ago I cleaned out my old bedroom closet at mom's house and found some old Liberty House plastic shopping bags and t-shirt boxes. That made me happy. I ended up saving them...there was no way I was throwing them out! The t-shirt boxes I used to hold Christmas ornaments, lol.

I've been in some really nasty looking Macy's stores like the ones described above. All were not a part of the Macy's West group. Macy's West indeed rocks!

I agree with that! I think that is true of a lot of stores though, not just the larger department stores.

While at UK, one of my first - if not the first - charge cards I got then was from McAlpin's.

I'm not even marginally surprised that St. Louis is on there. This market isn't terribly friendly to outside companies buying out St. Louis institutions, and a lot of Famous Barr customers never made the switch to being Macy's customers.

MMMMMMMM Cheesecake Factory. The one that there in Macy's is my favorite CF to go to cause you get a view of the city.

We had Lazarus and Marshall Fields. I will never ever forgive Macy's for buying Marshall Fields.

I much prefer Dillards to Macy's.

I also preferred Dillards to Foley's (in Dallas) as well as Hecht's (in Nashville), both of which later became Macy's.

As has already been pointed out, their prices are a load of crap. They prey on the innocent folks who go there because of a bridal registry. I once had to buy some flatware, and the bride was only registered at Macy's. The flatware was $65. However, the exact same pattern was *reguarly* priced $45 at Dillards, and at the time that I was shopping was on sale for $35. I bought two sets at Dillards instead of the one set at Macy's/Hechts and just told the bride to adjust her registry accordingly. The same scam had been occurring with Foley's and Hechts prior to becoming Macy's.

The quality and selection of clothes has also been better at Dillards than any of the Macy's family stores. I also have had better service at Dillards.

*disclaimer- all Macy's stores that I have shopped in have been in malls, not the stand alone kind, and were not originally Macy's. Take that FWIW.

Macy's at the malls I shop at in the Seattle area are fine, and I shop there about the same amount as I do Nordstrom. But I never buy things at Macy's at full-price (they're always having a sale), and I buy all my shoes and most of my cosmetics at Nordstrom. I buy the occasional trinket at Barney's downtown, but mostly just window shop there...sigh. I NEVER shop at JC Penney or Kohl's (which just arrived here a few years ago).

Macy's purchased the beloved Bon Marche chain in the Pacific Northwest, but I haven't noticed any difference in the merchandise here.

Macy's is pretty good around these parts, with a decent men's section - I generally stick to Brooks Brothers for my work clothes, but the Macy's around here have Lacoste and other good casual clothes.

My wife and I had one of our registries at Macy's and had a good experience with it - they had most of what we wanted, and apparently they were very helpful with our wedding guests in finding the items on our registry.

I honestly think this has something to do with it. My experience is limited to the standalone stores like 34th Street here in NYC, as well as Macy's West, which is much better than Macy's on the East Coast. Granted, I very rarely shop at any Macy's--if I go to a department store, it tends to be Saks, Bergdorfs, or Bloomingdales. I like a good Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus as well.

I think Sears and JCPenney are vile.

Amen. I still miss Marshall Fields and Macy's doesn't even come close. It seems a lot of people here feel the same way and are somewhat bitter toward Macy's.

Similar here in Texas. A lot of Foley's customers were not happy about Macy's taking over and switched to Dillard's. If Macy's had been smart, they would have bought Foley's and let them stay with the name and reputation.

Foley's sucked. I'm glad Macy's took over.

Macy's took over our Burdine's in South Florida. Burdine's was great. I went to them ALL the time to shop. Macy's was only for visiting Aventura Mall.

Now that Burdine's are all Macy's, I haven't been shopping there as much because the clothes selection hasn't been as good until more recently. However, the Macy's that we have that have always been Macy's are still great. All the former Burdine's stores are mostly so-so.

Dillard's is something I only go to for dresses. They have the best dress selection here. For anything else...blah. All of their stores seem to desperately need new carpets.

We had Hudsons, then Marshall Fields, and unfortunately then Macy's. I remember when it was somewhat affordable to shop there. WTF are they thinking putting a Macy's in a middle to lower-middle class area? People around here can't afford to buy that shit. I wanted to buy a pair of EMU boots. They were $80some at Macy's. Across the hall at Journey's they were on sale for $50 or $60. Ridiculous.

I will never be a fan of Macy's. I loved Famous Barr so much. It's a terrible thing that it's gone. :( I used to love to come home to Missouri, and go hit Famous Barr up. And they killed our Burdines here. Death to Macy's. :mad:

My mother-in-law was a die-hard Fields fan, and refuses to shop at Macy's. Fields always had great service, but Macy's...ick.

The two closing in this area were Kaufmann's. I think only 11 people will be unemployed due to the one store closing - bad for them, but not as horrendous as 11,000.

Hear, hear! I was actually given a framed Marshall Fields shopper bag as a Christmas present! It was a special promotion of something I collect, and framed so that I can hang it on either side.

We were just talking about this over the weekend! The guys were clueless, but the trips to the special department stores with your mother or other significant woman are sooo important to a young girl. Or at least, they used to be.

Does anyone else remember being in the tea room, while models walked through, wearing a special outfit and holding a card so your mother could check out the outfit after lunch?

And I agree with whomever suggested that Macy's had kept the "tenor" and name of each store, but collected the profits. That first time to Bloomingdales, to Neiman-Marcus, to Lord & Taylor - they were so special!

They close stores every year... This really isn't that big of a deal...

Does anyone else remember being in the tea room, while models walked through, wearing a special outfit and holding a card so your mother could check out the outfit after lunch?


I loved the fashion shows! My sister and I did one at the Saks near Wilshire once...we must have looked like little pageant girls with our aqua net laquered hair and powder blue crushed velvet dresses! I don't remember cards for the outfits...but I do remember the free valet parking! When I was older I know the Bullock's near my house has a teen board, and it was quite a big deal to be the teen board rep for your high school. We also had a smaller local dept store. When they had their sale in June, all the moms in the neighborhood got up early to wait for the doors to open!

It seems pretty simple to me that in this day and age of Internet shopping, shopping in a brick and mortar store has to be an experience that is relaxing, fun, and somehow more upscale. Nordstrom pretty much gets it right, although I have to go to South Coast to buy dresses or suits. There isn't a lot of selection at the store nearest to me. So now I shop mostly on line!

I remember Bullock's from when I was very very very little, and there was also Emporium Capwell. Macy's West is amazing, when I. Magnin closed they became this juggernaut knocking out the walls and expanding the Union Square women's store. Being able to get off the street car and go through a turnstile to enter the store was pretty amazing for the downtown San Francisco stores. I always got my santa photos there, and they would have carnivals on the roof.