Macy's closing Eastland and Westland stores

[ABetterDetroit]

Embrace the new economies and take part in them. It was a spectacular success when we did it during the birth of the automobile in this metro area. Several decades later, when change was happening again in the same industry, we practically chased it out of state by digging in our heels with politics and labor demanding to do it the way it has always been done and denouncing the change. We ended up in an economic disaster from which we still not have recovered. We should have been the robotics leader of the world, but no we didn't want those job killing machines here. Look how that worked out. Your welcome California.

It's always better to be part of the changes than have them be made for you.

[MicrosoftFan]

I took a trip to Westland a few days ago. It looked as if it was on the brink of death. The Kohl's looked fine and was reasonably busy, but that was the peak. The atmosphere of the mall was terrible- dark, dank corners where stores used to be, empty kiosks in the center of the halls, cheap looking kids play areas in the main courts, carpeting with stains, and worst of all the heat. It was freezing behind the now-closed Macy's, I had to put my coat back on.

Penney's is doing reasonably well and it looked clean, but you can tell they suffer from far too much inventory. The Sears, the last remaining mall Sears in Metro Detroit, had a good amount of mostly older shoppers, but far too much inventory as well. They are still selling Christmas sweaters. In April. The bags have their [[200th?) anniversary printed on them for 2018 still. The store itself was clean, but the fluorescent lighting was intense and gave it a 90s Radio Shack feel. The tools department still had one of Sears' famous elderly workers who know everything, but the appliance department had a young guy who was reading things about the dishwashers I was inquiring about straight off the price tag.

After leaving the massive disappointment of Westland Mall, I headed over to Ford Road, which was busy as ever. The Canton JCPenney, just down the road, was leaps and bounds above the Westland location and was clean, modern, and had good-looking displays. It was also reasonably busy. If JCPenney can convert their stores into this slightly smaller format model, perhaps by closing the second story in some locations and moving it to the first, they can survive.

My final trip was to Southland to make a return at Penney's from my visit to Canton a few days earlier. Southland may be experiencing a renaissance; I only counted a few empty storefronts and foot traffic was busy for 3pm on a weekday. JCPenney was well stocked and had ample foot traffic, and even their second floor had bright new displays for towels and other "soft-home" products. The Southland Macy's was still kicking as well, though the third floor furniture gallery had near-original yellow carpeting. Southland has been able to stay alive and kicking because 1) it is on a busy road corridor [[although this hasn't saved East/North land) 2) there aren't as many retail options Downriver, as opposed to Northland which has Tel-Twelve and Somerset a few miles away and 3) they've added stores like H&M and Forever 21 that appeal to the teen girl crowd.

In other news, Sears has opened three concept "Home and Life" stores. They will be MUCH smaller and focus on appliances and home goods. This is exactly what they should be doing, since Sears simply cannot compete in the apparel space, whereas JCPenney is probably able to. Millennials don't get the concept of selling apparel, appliances, home goods, and tools all under one roof. Will this save Sears? I guess we'll see.

[401don]

They are still selling Christmas sweaters. In April.

Maybe they're just ahead of the curve. Costco starts bringing out their Christmas stuff in July.