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Macy’s Inc. will close 100 stores next year, about 15 percent of its 675 full-line stores nationwide, the company said.
Which locations will be closed will be announced later, the Cincinnati-based retailer said in a statement posted on its website.
Macy’s operates 127 full-line stores in California, including three in Riverside County and seven in San Bernardino County.
The stores to be shut down – some of which are worth more as real estate than they are as retail stores – are expected to close early next year. It’s not known how many jobs will be lost, according to the statement.
Almost all of the soon-to-be-closed Macy’s stores are generating positive cash flow, but most of them have seen their volume and profitability decline in recent years, according to Jeff Gennette, Macy’s president.
Besides the store closings, Macy’s plans to shift more of its resources into online shopping and its mobile app.
“We decided to close a larger number stores proactively so we can invest in … our most productive and highest potential locations, as well as invest in growth, sooner and more aggressively, in digital and mobile,” Gennette said in the statement.
Macy’s same-store sales were down two percent year-over-year during the second quarter. Same-store sales, which measure sales at stores that have been open for at least a year, are considered the most accurate assessment of a retailer’s financial performance.
