IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Macy’s has announced that it plans to close 35 to 40 stores next year, about five percent of the company’s portfolio.
Company officials are now deciding which stores will be shut down, with exact locations to be announced “at a later date,” according to a company statement.
The closings are part of Macy’s ongoing effort to keep up with changes in the retail industry and its customer demographic, and are not a sign that the department store chain is moving away from traditional brick-and-mortar locations, said Terry J. Lundgren, Macy’s chairman and chief executive officer.
“Each year we prune some stores that are our weakest performers so that can concentrate our resources on the best locations and maintain a strong physical presence,” Lundgren said in the statement released this week.
“At the same time, we open a small number of new stores to fill gaps in our market coverage or [to take advantage of] outstanding real estate opportunities.”
Based in Cincinnati, Macy’s operates 885 stores under various names in the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico. It has more than 100 locations in California, including eight in the Inland Empire.
During the past five years, 52 Macy’s stores have closed and 12 have opened. The stores that will be shut down next year will have generated about $300 million in combined annual sales, according to the statement.
Officials at Inland Center Mall have received no indication that their Macy’s store is on the endangered list, said Terri Relf, senior marketing manager at the San Bernardino mall.
“As far as I know it’s going to be business as usual here,” Relf said.
Macy’s generated about $28.1 billion in sales during 2014, according to the statement.
