Macy’s to close 125 stores, shed 2,000 corporate jobs

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO

NEW YORK (AP) — Macy’s said Tuesday it is closing 125 of its least productive stores and cutting 2,000 corporate jobs as the struggling department store tries to reinvent itself in the age of online shopping.

The store closures represent about one fifth of Macy’s current total. They include about 30 that are in the process of closing and account for $1.4 billion in annual sales.

Macy’s didn’t specify how many jobs would be lost at the shuttered stores.

The corporate jobs will be shed as Macy’s closes its offices in Cincinnati and San Francisco, leaving New York as its sole corporate headquarters. Macy’s said that the 2,000 jobs to be lost account for about 9% of its corporate workforce.

Overall, Macy’s currently employs about 130,000 people.

Macy’s is also testing a new smaller-store format that’s located at a strip center, instead of a mall. The store will feature a mixture of Macy’s merchandise and local goods as well as food and beverage options. It will open its first so-called Market by Macy’s in Dallas on Thursday. The company also plans to build four $1 billion brands.

Macy’s, like its peers Nordstrom and J.C. Penney, is dealing with stiffer competition and shoppers’ changing behavior. Department stores are seeing their customers increasingly head to off-price stores like T.J. Maxx for fat discounts on name brands. They’re also renting and buying second-hand goods online.