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Macy's Closing 11 Stores

Found in: Store Openings & Closings
Thursday
January 8, 2009
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December wasn’t kind to Macy’s as they saw a 4.0% drop in same store sales and have now announced that they are closing 11 stores. Combining November and December, same store sales dropped 7.5% over last year for the retailer.

Close to 1,000 employees are affected by these store closings – unknown how many fo them will be able to transfer to positions in other stores.

From their press release, the closing stores are:

  • Ernst & Young Plaza (Citicorp Plaza), Los Angeles, CA (135,000 square feet; 136 employees; opened in 1986)
  • The Citadel, Colorado Springs, CO (195,000 square feet; 105 employees; opened in 1984)
  • Westminster Mall, Westminster, CO (156,000 square feet; 110 employees; opened in 1986)
  • Palm Beach Mall, West Palm Beach, FL (190,000 square feet; 71 employees; opened in 1979)
  • Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, Island of Hawaii, HI (3,000 square feet; 3 employees; opened in 1983)
  • Lafayette Square, Indianapolis, IN (160,000 square feet; 84 employees; opened in 1974)
  • Brookdale Center, Brooklyn Center, MN (195,000 square feet; 72 employees; opened in 1966)
  • Crestwood Mall, St. Louis, MO (166,000 square feet; 176 employees; opened in 1969)
  • Natrona Heights Plaza, Natrona Heights, PA (73,000 square feet; 124 employees; opened in 1956)
  • Century III Furniture and Clearance, West Mifflin, PA (83,000 square feet; 3 employees; opened in 2000)
  • Bellevue Center, Nashville, TN (211,000 square feet; 76 employees; opened in 1990).

These store closings represent a troubling sign of things to come for the retail industry. I believe Macy’s is just the first in a line of retailers to announce downsizing over the next few weeks. Who’s next?

More coverage from the Consumerist, Reuters and BloggingStocks.


Photo above from Flickr user pkeleher. Use under Creative Commons License.

Hello M – acy’s

Found in: Branding
Friday
June 1, 2007
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In case you didn’t realize, today Federated Department Stores changed it’s name to Macy’s, Inc. The name change was first proposed earlier this year, with shareholders approving the change last week. In addition the name change, they also received a new, valuable stock symbol on the NYSE:

Federated first said in March it would change to the ‘M’ symbol from ‘FD,’ and also change its name to Macy’s Inc. Shareholders approved the move in May.

The NYSE does not disclose the exact process it uses to determine whether it will allow a company to have a single-letter ticker, but the assignation is prestigious.

“They’re desirable ticker symbols, valued for marketing reasons and investor relations reasons,” said NYSE spokesman Christiaan Brakman.

In March, NYSE Chief Executive John A. Thain said Macy’s was a good fit for ‘M’ because it is a “marquee name and a brand of great distinction.”

Others single-ticker companies on the New York Stock Exchange _ there are now 16 _ include AT&T Inc., with a ‘T’ ticker symbol, and Sprint Nextel Corp., with an ‘S.’

More from the Associated Press.

Obviously, not everyone is happy with the change. Fans of the Marshall Fields brand have long been blogging at fieldfanschicago.org to express their dismay over Macy’s ditching the Marshall Field’s name and converting all stores to the Macy’s brand.

Department stores breathe fresh air

Found in: Economy
Thursday
August 17, 2006
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With another quarter of solid earnings and sales for most department stores, The Street says that it “might be time to remove department stores from the retail industry’s endangered species list” (see: Department stores breathe fresh air).

They say:

“Mid-market department stores, led by J.C. Penney and Kohl’s, started to fight back against their competitors about two to three years ago,” says Hastings. “They’ve been able to use fashion exclusives, private-label merchandise, footwear offerings, cosmetics and fragrances, jewelry and other accessories to really surpass discounters in their ability to appeal to customers. They also have more leeway when it comes to profit margins, which gives them more flexibility with pricing and promotions.”

JC Penney, Kohl’s, Federated, and Dillard’s are all doing very well when compared to the industry as a whole. So far, in 2006, people are flocking to department stores and seemingly ignoring most of the specialty retailers. While department stores were playing catch-up with the rest of the mall in 2002, now it seems that JCP and KSS are the top dogs again.

Lord & Taylor Sold for $1.2b

Found in: Store Openings & Closings
Thursday
June 22, 2006
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The deal is done, Federated has sold Lord & Taylor for $1.2b. Coverage from the New York Times, Forbes, Forbes (again) and Commercial Property News.

The details, from Forbes:

Federated Department Stores Inc. announced a deal Thursday to sell its Lord & Taylor department store chain for about $1.2 billion in cash to Purchase, N.Y.-based NRDC Equity Partners LLC, which will be putting its business under a microscope. NRDC is a partnership between principals of Apollo Real Estate Advisors L.P. and principals of National Realty & Development Corp.

Federated said its board has approved the sale, and the deal is expected to close in the third quarter, pending regulatory approvals.

The $1.195 billion deal includes 48 Lord & Taylor stores, including the Fifth Avenue flagship in Manhattan, as well as a distribution center in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Aside from New York, other locations, predominantly in the Northeast, are in New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and District of Columbia.

Speculation is that Federated was not looking for someone who was just looking for the real estate. But instead looking for someone who would operate the chain for some time before divesting property. Federated did not want key properties going to competitors in the short-term. Rumor has it that one of the prospective bidders was Vornado Realty Trust, who quietly sank due to their lack of partnership with a retail management company.

Again, from Forbes:

It will be business as usual,” said Richard Baker, president of NRDC, reached by phone, noting its intention to keep Lord & Taylor as an ongoing specialty department store. “We are going to do a lot of high-level and granular analysis in order to determine the most efficient way to operate each store.”

Baker declined to give details, but said that NRDC is studying all of its options, including size and locations of each store. NRDC, for example, will be figuring out whether it makes sense to have a slimmer flagship in Manhattan. The flagship is about 600,000 square feet, but could be slashed in half, Baker said.

It doesn’t take much to see that a good part of the game plan involves maximizing profits through dumping property. However, realize that although NRDC has a realty background, the principals behind NRDC are currently spearheading the turnaround of Linens ‘N Things, after being outbid in their attempts to aquire both Toys R Us and Pathmark.

Commercial Property News says:

Richard Baker’s previous comments on the Linens ‘n Things transaction may shed some light on the investors’ thinking about Lord & Taylor. During a Nov. 2005 discussion of Linens ‘n Things, Baker told CPN ,“That could have been more of a real estate transaction, but in the end (the chain) was bought to be operated.” He said of the Linens ‘n Things stores, “We think they’re good locations in very good markets, and they should be very competitive in the industry.”

This is not just a real estate deal – at the surface, it looks like Lord & Taylor, in some consolidated form, will exist for the foreseeable future. But, I won’t get too attatched to the Lord & Taylor in my local mall. It probably won’t be here much longer.

Express Lane for 6/11/2006

Found in: Express Lane
Sunday
June 11, 2006
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The second half of last week was crazy busy for me. Let me catch up on a few of the stories I missed last week:

Fendi sues Wal-Mart over sales of fake handbags:

Italian fashion group Fendi S.R.L. sued Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in U.S. federal court on Friday, accusing the world’s largest retailer of selling counterfeit handbags and passing them off as genuine at its Sam’s Club warehouse stores.

Sam’s Club stores in California, New York, Florida and other states sold knock off handbags, wallets and key chains that were identified as “genuine” Fendi products, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The suit by Fendi said that Wal-Mart has never purchased its products and never asked Fendi if any of the items bearing its trademark were genuine.

Having never stepped foot into a Sam’s Club, I’m suprised to even imagine that they would carry any Fendi products. This suit will be interesting to watch to see where the blame, if any, lies within Wal-Mart. Is this the case of an over-zealous buyer making sure they’re meeting “always low prices” or is this the case of Fendi not happy that their goods somehow ended up in Sam’s Club?

Good coverage in the comments over at Wake Up Walmart

More about the changes at Federated as the September transition to the Macy’s brand approaches. Here’s the rundown: Macy’s is the brand that people response to the most nationally, even if people in this article are negative about the loss of their regional department stores. Expect less promotions and increased private-label and exclusive offerings, as well as stores tailored to the region that they are in, so that Federated can maintain some of the things that people loved about all of the chains that they’ve swallowed up. Very informative article, though.

And lastly, two food-related quickies about two different chains who are being compared to Starbucks:

First is Dunkin Donuts, who are obviously competiting in the same space as Starbucks (in the sense that they both sell coffee). Boston.com has an article outlining the future growth plans of this chain. The plan calls for 15,000 U.S. locations in 2020, up from 5,000 today, and this will be done through a variety of store layouts and prototype as well as increased product offerings to drive afternoon business.

Is this all being done in an effort to compete with Starbucks? Not so much, it seems. As a loyal dunkin Donuts coffee drinker, I think that as much as these two brands concentrate around the same product (coffee), there is not too much overlap in their philosophy and themes, so I can see both of them co-existing pretty well in the world we live in. Seriously, though, whoever thought that there will be a day that we will live in a world with tens of thousands of locations of the same two stores?

The other eatery being compared to Starbucks doesn’t deal with coffee, but instead deals with ice cream.

USA Today has an article outlining the future growth of Cold Stone Creamery and the ice cream business in general. Two quotes that sum up this article really well are the following:

Cold Stone doesn’t just sell sundaes and sorbet, it sells sizzle. “It’s like Starbucks for kids,” says George Carey, president of Just Kid, a consulting firm.

and

An industry that once sold ice cream now is selling an ice cream experience.

Tonight I went to Friendly’s to get a large Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup sundae. I’m not concerned with the experience, I just want good ice cream. But with that said, it will be very hard for me to resist the new Cold Stone Creamery that they are building three minutes from my house.

That’s all I got tonight.