Macy’s will shut down 15 % of its department stores

Department store chain Macy’s will shut down another 100 stores, about 15 % of its entire store network after it had already announced it would shut down about 40 stores earlier this year.

Real estate worth more

Most of the targeted stores are underperforming, but the chain will also shut down stores located in buildings that are worth more in real estate than they are in store sales. However, Macy’s board has not yet finalized which stores will eventually shut down, a decision that will see most stores make it until the end of the fiscal year. It is also still unknown how many people will be fired as a result of this new measure. 

Macy’s latest quarterly numbers are not really strong. It did do better than expected in the second quarter, but even then, the overall performance was lackluster. Turnover dropped 3.9 % to 5.9 billion dollars (5.3 billion euro), while its net profit fell sharply, from 217 million dollars (194 million euro) to 11 million dollars (10 million euro).

Macy’s currently has 728 stores and it already fired 4,800 people in January when it revealed it would shut down 40 stores.