Macy’s closing four stores — here’s where

1/6/2023

Macy’s is closing several stores in January.

Macy’s is shuttering four full-line mall stores in January as part of its ongoing strategy to close select stores while it expands its off-mall, smaller-format store concepts.

Macy’s confirmed it is closing stores in the following malls:

• Crenshaw Plaza, Los Angeles (Baldwin Hills);

• Foothills Mall, Fort Collins, Col.;

• Windward Center, Oahu, Hawaii (Kaneohe); and

• Lakeforest Mall, Gaithersburg, Md.

A spokesperson told Chain Store Age that the closures are part of the company’s Polaris transformation strategy, which it announced in 2020, and that is committed to offering impacted employees a role in nearby locations or severance packages.  

“As part of our Polaris transformation strategy, we continue to optimize and reposition our store fleet to ensure we have the right mix of on-mall and off-mall stores to better serve our customers and effectively support omnichannel market sales growth,” the spokesperson said.

In Macy’s third-quarter earnings call, CFO Adrian Mitchell said the company is expecting to announce less than 10 store closings in January.

“We continue to see the importance of main locations within the best malls particularly as we build out our omnichannel ecosystem,” Mitchell said. “We expect to announce less than 10 store closures in January, consistent with our decision to delay the closure of our full-line store base that we communicated last year.”

While Macy’s is scaling back its full-line Macy’s portfolio, it is accelerating the expansion of its off-mall, small-format stores, including its Bloomie’s concept, which will open its third location later this year, in Seattle.

In 2022, Macy’s opened four off-mall, smaller-format stores bringing the total number of these locations to eight. It also opened 42 Macy’s Backstage locations, for a total of more than 300 nationwide.

“We continue to meet our customers however they choose to shop, through a combination of physical stores in the best malls, off-mall smaller-format and off-price stores, and a best-in-class digital shopping experience,” Macy’s stated.

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