No one in the press remembers — back in August of 2016 Terry outlined the number of stores they were closing. They planned to do closings based on performance and location after the holidays. The 68 stores closing is a smart move. I have been to some of them, like Eau Claire, Wisconsin — my son lives there. They never shop that Macy’s. It is an old store, low in staff and in a bad location. Smart move to close it.

This is a very smart move — clean up the channel. Online shifts will be next and more pop-up stores promoting smaller brands is working. Macy’s has a solid merchandising platform that is in the final phases of change, per their press releases.

The industry press loves to have a scapegoat. Sears is getting boring and J.C. Penney too. So guess it is Macy’s turn to get the press attacks. USA Today — retail smart? Bloomberg? They cannot seem to remember last August.

As many of you know, I grew up in the department store business. Federated to be exact so I do have a passion for Macy’s. While I still love the concept of the department store, many are finding that what they could get in one store they can now get just as easily, if not more easily, online. Ramping up the omnichannel business as Terry Lundgren did was a super smart move and now it’s time to figure out what folks want to come into a store for. Likely what they will find is that they don’t need all that square footage even if they are shipping from store. And they don’t need all those stores.

In answer to today’s question, is management making the right move? In a word, yes! But the buck doesn’t stop there. There are still miles to go and if anyone can do it, Macy’s can!

But that’s just my 2 cents.

Macy’s has been quick to embrace e-commerce but slow to react to the changes in their brick-and-mortar stores. The customer is making the decision about where to shop. I don’t believe management is moving fast enough to set Macy’s on a stronger digital course. They need to close the unprofitable stores faster and develop more affiliate relationships online to replace the lost revenue.

But as brands like Macy’s and Sears disappear from the mall anchors, so go the other retailers in the malls. So the implications to brick-and-mortar in total are just beginning to appear.

Macy’s must stabilize its business in light of the major changes facing retail. Cutting the expenses associated with having too many stores and employees is the right way to proceed. The savings will give them more runway to restructure their operations to achieve profitability and growth.

Fundamentally, Macy’s must reinvent itself to become relevant in the world of e-commerce, mobile and omnichannel. It has a great opportunity to leverage its strong brand by taking a leadership position in these trends driving the retail industry.

A great holiday? We’ve discussed this often. Macy’s strategy for a national moderate department store was uninformed by the shopper. Since buying irrelevant and flagging department stores across the U.S., the aggregate is no more relevant. Aggressive off-price promotion to drive traffic and liquidate too large inventories proved that Macy’s did not offer a relevant national value. Personalization, local relevance, a rewarding brick-and-mortar experience and Amazon have checked “national buying power” for Macy’s. To win today, Macy’s needs to shut down markets, not just stores. Certainly the massive urban locations, accumulated from the buying spree, have ceased to be profitable even without the regular facility upgrades these ancient shopping temples require. Focus on the northeast where the brand remains important. And continue to serve the balance of the country with a robust digital presence and selected outposts for media value and to handle returns. Its digital investments and deployments accord Macy’s a “genius” rating by L2. Would the decomp be even worse without these tactics? Like Kohl’s, who also posted a holiday decomp, more stuff… Read more »

No. Macy’s is a department store. They need to reinvent what that IS, just like all of their department store competitors. What they are doing is akin to cutting down on meals to save money for food.

This category needs a revolution. Not an evolution.

I have an idea of what the revolution should look like but the pain needs to be extreme before they realize that the baby NEEDS to go out with the bathwater.

I believe that Macy’s is making some smart moves, but I do hope they spend some of the savings on upgrading the store experience, especially as it relates to employees. I hate to say this as a Boomer, but even I don’t enjoy the lackluster, disinterested senior sales associates that really don’t have a “bead” on how to convert traffic to sales.

So if I feel that way, what about my two Millennial working daughters, who both get monthly clothing boxes from a stylist service? Add Amazon, Zappos, T.J. Maxx and a few upscale resale shops and they are all set. They use Macy’s for wedding gifts only if Amazon can’t match prices. Macy’s is a brand on an island that doesn’t really have a human bridge to the future.

This is, of course, only the beginning, or really more the middle of much deeper cuts. Macy’s has identified, albeit clumsily and perhaps inadverdantly, its “Top (150) Doors” and one has to think that in the end, those may be the only ones left. Will those be enough to form a viable chain? As for evaluating management’s response, the company is — for now at least — fundamentally tied to a business model that seems to be terminally ill. Department stores are dying, both here and in Europe — a few well-known tourist attractions notwithstanding. This makes it both hard and easy criticize. Hard because there are few peers to compare to and “what (else) can they do?” is an obvious response. Easy, because “anything else would have been better” is a similar rote response. One “anything else,” of course, relates to the decision to operate under a single banner (Bloomingdales notwithstanding). The Field’s rebranding was the symbol for this (potential mis)decision, but in a broader sense, it’s a problem of mushing together local chains… Read more »

Macy’s is making the right move. But there will be more work to do after the store closing. My concern is not for Macy’s, but for the 6,200 people out of work as the closings and management level changes start to take place.

Macy’s will continue to succeed. The name alone is a draw to the customers. In other posts today I read about Macy’s closings and layoffs, Sears getting another infusion of cash and Penney’s selling off their corporate campus. It appears retailers are taking serious belt tightening steps after the holidays. It makes one wonder just how good the holiday sales really were.

Macy’s store closing and layoffs do not address the core problem, which is that Macy’s is investing in things like AI and personalization, and not in initiatives that will allow for significant growth improvements. These investments will fall short in 2017 because they are not traffic drivers, they are geared toward conversion and while they may help with conversion, they are not going to help retailers gain additional core traffic to their site or stores. Omni-channel retailers will differentiate from Amazon by offering a consolidated and curated brand experience that answers consumers’ lifestyle needs.