It’s no secret that many malls across the country aren’t doing well, and that means that the stores in them are also suffering, so much so that many have had to shutter locations or even declare bankruptcy. Mall staples like Foot Locker, Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, Rue21 and Express are among those closing stores, and now, a huge anchor at many malls will be joining them.
Macy’s will be closing 150 locations in the coming months. The company has split its locations into “go forward” and “non-go forward” stores. They plan to invest in new merchandise for the first group, while the 150 Macy’s in the second group will be closed. During the brand’s recent earnings call, CEO Tony Spring explained, “As a reminder, in fiscal 2023, comp sales of Macy’s go-forward locations outperformed non-go-forward locations by approximately 500 basis points and the four-wall adjusted EBITDA rate outperformed by roughly 950 basis points. While non-go-forward locations are underperformers relative to the total Macy’s fleet, they are valuable real estate assets. Demand for these properties has been strong.”
Of those stores, 55 will be shuttered by the end of the year and the rest closed soon after. They have not yet revealed which locations will be affected.
As for why it’s happening, Spring surmised, “Our customer became more discriminating, which we attribute to ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and an increasingly complex news cycle.” With that, he said they are making changes to adapt to the new landscape, stating, “We aligned our assortments and shifted our marketing calendar to better balance value and fashion. We enhanced our promotions and delivered more targeted personalized messages across categories and brands. And, we invested in newness and proven areas of product strength while reducing our exposure to areas of softer demand.”
Currently, there are 519 Macy’s stores in the country, but the company also owns over 150 Bluemercury stores and 56 Bloomingdale’s.
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