But this summertime announcement that it will close 15 percent of its locations suggests that the chain has become more aggressive in girding its ailing business for the digital era.
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Macy’s has a store at Glenbrook Square mall in Fort Wayne and the two nearest stores to that location are in Muncie, Indiana and Lima, Ohio.
“Macy’s is committed to treating associates affected by store closings with respect and openness”, the company said. “We are encouraged by the distinct improvement in our sales and earnings trend in the second quarter”, CEO Terry Lundgren said in a news release.
Macy’s Inc. on Thursday posted second quarter results that topped analysts’ expectations.
Macy’s shares rose 10 percent to $37.40 at 8:06 a.m.in early trading in NY after the report was released.
The company said in some cases, the stores to be closed hold more value to the company as real estate than as a store.
Macy’s had been a stellar performer since the Great Recession, but in the past year and a half has seen slowing sales as it contends with competition on all fronts and changing shopping patterns. Shoppers are shifting their money away from clothing toward experiences like beauty treatments and furnishing their home. In fact, Amazon.com is expected to surpass Macy’s as the largest online clothing seller next year, according to some analysts.
The move is part of a company effort to operate fewer stores while focusing resources on better-performing locations.
At its peak in January 2007, the chain had 868 stores, including locations under the Bloomingdale’s brand, the AP reported. The company said it plans to maintain “a significant bricks-and-mortar presence in 49 of the top 50 US markets”. The plans are for the men’s store to be recombined into its main Union Square store.
A downtown Chicago store on the city’s shop-heavy State Street “is still in the mix of our flagships to lease or sell portions of the building”.
The Cincinnati-based company said it had profit of 3 cents per share.
Excluding the charges, the company earned 54 cents per share. Revenue fell 3.9 percent to $5.87 billion. At the same time, department stores lost an estimated $348 million dollars in apparel revenue in the first quarter. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 2%. He doesn’t think this is a sign that department stores are going the way of bookstores like Border’s, which couldn’t recover from sales lost to online shopping. That’s the sixth straight decline for that measure.
Gross margin was 37.1%, compared with 37% a year prior.
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The company closed 40 of its stores earlier this year, but that didn’t stop yearly same-store sales from falling 2 percent last quarter.
