Macy's to Shutter 14 Stores

“Our business is rapidly evolving in response to changes in the way customers are shopping across stores, desktops, tablets and smartphones," says Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and chief executive officer, Macy’s. "We must continue to invest in our business to focus on where the customer is headed–to prepare for what’s next. Macy’s has benefited in recent years by having invested early and aggressively in our M.O.M. strategies (My Macy’s localization, Omni-channel integration and Magic Selling customer engagement). We are continuing to learn from our experiences and to mold our business model and M.O.M. strategies around what our customers are telling us and how they are behaving so that we can continue to succeed in this environment."

The closure of the 14 stores, which account for approximately $130 million in annual

“We continue to maintain a very strong nationwide network of stores through an ongoing process of selectively adding new locations while also trimming those that no longer meet our performance requirements, where the real estate can be redeployed to more productive uses, or where our leases were not renewed,” says Lundgren.

Additionally, both Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s are restructuring their merchandising and marketing functions so each brand can develop and provide a single, omni-channel approach to all product categories. Going forward, one unified merchandising and marketing organization–a hybrid of store and online buying–will support the entire Macy’s business, where previously store and online assortments were bought separately. The same is true at Bloomingdale’s.

Other plans for the retailer include continued exploration of opportunities for the retailer's off-price business, a focus on digital retailing, increasing direct-to-consumer fulfillment capabilities and the opening of new Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Bloomingdale’s Outlet stores as opportunities arise.

These changes are estimated to generate savings of approximately $140 million per year, beginning in 2015, which the company plans to reinvest into technology and growth initiatives.