Macy’s closes full-line stores in malls

The closures will include department stores in Los Angeles; Fort Collins, Colorado; Oahu, Hawaii; and Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Macy’s has announced plans to close four full-size stores that serve as anchor tenants in the malls. The closures will include department stores in Los Angeles; Fort Collins, Colorado; Oahu, Hawaii; and Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Earlier in late 2022, it was revealed that Macy’s would close at least ten major stores, following an earlier strategy to cut costs and streamline the business.
“As part of our Polaris transformation strategy, we continue to optimize and reposition our store fleet to ensure the right mix of mall and non-mall stores to better serve our customers and effectively support sales growth in the omnichannel market,” the company commented.

At the same time, Macy’s is focusing on developing a smaller store format outside of malls. In particular, new Bloomingdale’s stores will open in Chicagoland and Seattle. In 2022, the retailer opened four smaller stores under the Market by Macy’s brand, four classic stores, and 42 Backstage discounters.

As of the third quarter of 2022, the retailer operated 445 full-format Macy’s stores, 46 furniture stores, 32 full-format Bloomingdale’s stores, and 20 Bloomingdale’s outlet stores.

Closing full-format stores and opening smaller outlets outside the malls is an essential step in Macy’s strategy, which previously focused on absorbing smaller chains. In today’s reality, the retailer recognizes that the performance of “anchor” stores is declining and is trying to find the right balance of stores of different formats in its portfolio.