Macy's closing Eastland and Westland stores

**dtowncitylover** · January-04-17, 05:33 PM

...and Westland? Macy's closure specifics have been announced...

http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...land/96169700/

**EastsideAl** · January-04-17, 05:38 PM

http://www.clickondetroit.com/consum...-holiday-sales

Eastland has been hanging by a thread for years, so I'm saddened but not surprised to see it go. As an eastsider who's been going there since my childhood I'll miss it. Probably the death knell for the entire center too, which would be a shame.

Surprised about Westland though. Have been there maybe twice in my life however, so maybe I'm missing something.

**casscorridor** · January-04-17, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by EastsideAl

http://www.clickondetroit.com/consum...-holiday-sales

Eastland has been hanging by a thread for years, so I'm saddened but not surprised to see it go. As an eastsider who's been going there since my childhood I'll miss it. Probably the death knell for the entire center too, which would be a shame.

Surprised about Westland though. Have been there maybe twice in my life however, so maybe I'm missing something.

My question is, long term, what happens to these working-class suburbs such as Westland and Eastpointe?

**iheartthed** · January-04-17, 06:41 PM

Not to be outdone, KMart/Sears announced quite a few of their own closings. Westland is taking it on the chin... http://www.businessinsider.com/list-...closing-2017-1

**Danny** · January-04-17, 06:52 PM

After Macy's leaves, Eastland Mall will Die!

After Macy's leave Westland Mall, Westland Mall still survive. For a couple of decades.

**Danny** · January-04-17, 06:59 PM

Blame online shopping!

**stasu1213** · January-04-17, 07:28 PM

I blame Eastland mall very poor management and not having a turnaround plan such as Macomb Mall has

**stasu1213** · January-04-17, 07:31 PM

Originally Posted by casscorridor

My question is, long term, what happens to these working-class suburbs such as Westland and Eastpointe?

Westland will survive but Eastpointe will reclaim the East Detroit name as more unwanted Detroiters will reside there due to the soon to be rapid decline in the cost of living

**401don** · January-04-17, 07:55 PM

I keep waiting for the big shoe to drop - Sears closing North American wide. That will be the death of hundreds of malls. They have already pulled their hardware & electronics sections here in Canada and closed their best Toronto stores in order to raise cash by selling the leases.

**Bigdd** · January-04-17, 11:16 PM

Originally Posted by Danny

Blame online shopping!

Perhaps,.. but the data shows [[to my surprise) that 93% of purchases are still made at brick & mortar stores.

Kmart stopped selling anything people wanted more than a decade ago.

Sears was built on customer service. But in the last 20 years you go into the tool section for instance,.. and instead of 5 sales-people who were all knowledgeable,.. you find one gal behind the register who can't tell you where the cut-off wheels are,.. because she has no idea what one is.

It's a tough business for sure. I still buy ratchets and sockets at Sears,... and have bought leaf-blowers and such there. Even a counter-top last month. But I expect them to disappear soon.

Shocked to hear that there are still Kmarts. I thought they went bankrupt years ago. I haven't seen a Kmart in 2-3 years.

**Gistok** · January-05-17, 03:48 AM

Eastland is in Harper Woods [[Wayne County) and not Eastpointe [[Macomb County), so no name change back to East Detroit. Eastland is where Harper Woods, Detroit and Eastpointe borders meet. Agree poor management.

**clubboss** · January-05-17, 04:44 AM

Originally Posted by Bigdd

Perhaps,.. but the data shows [[to my surprise) that 93% of purchases are still made at brick & mortar stores.

Completely inaccurate

**Hermod** · January-05-17, 05:47 AM

Included in the Macy's closings is downtown Minneapolis which was the flagship of the old Dayton stores [[later Dayton-Hudson and now evolved into Target). Somehow, it hung on while downtown Hudson's went down years ago. Target sold their Dayton-Hudson chain to Macy's.

**mikefmich** · January-05-17, 07:12 AM

Played at Eastland when it was still woods & swamp. My first regular job was there too.
I was very relieved when they built it, 'cause it kept me from going shopping with my ma all the way downtown or Northland, which were both day long affairs. Eastland was only 10 minutes away.

Oh well......time marches on.

**Zacha341** · January-05-17, 07:30 AM

I would tend to agree. Walk-in purchases are way down. Even considering many now purchased online occurred this holiday season from Macy's etc [[I made several from Macy's this way recently), which does little for the standing stores.

Then factor in online sales from Amazon, eBay, Itsy and other web-based specialty stores and their discount wars therein. Yeah, in store purchases are down by a significant percent. Enough to bring about these closings, along with other reasons.

Originally Posted by clubboss

Completely inaccurate

Originally Posted by Bigdd

Perhaps,.. but the data shows [[to my surprise) that 93% of purchases are still made at brick & mortar stores...

**pocketchange** · January-05-17, 07:57 AM

Looks like 93% isn't too far off

https://ycharts.com/indicators/ecomm...t_retail_sales

but that considers everything...

While 7 percent might sound like just a sliver of the market, remember that there are still a lot of things you wouldn't think of buying online, such as gasoline, cars and restaurant meals. Within certain categories, such as apparel, the shift to the Internet has been faster, according to Poonam Goyal, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence."Companies that generate the largest portion of their sales from online are apparel stores," Goyal said. "Their online sales are often more than 15 percent of their total sales, so the potential there is enormous.”

**Zacha341** · January-05-17, 08:03 AM

^^^ Good point! I'd sure like some just peeking fresh from the kitchen Eggs Benedict to appear at my door via online right about now...

...

Not doing. Some items cannot be purchased online!

**Cincinnati_Kid** · January-05-17, 08:13 AM

Macy's closing 68 stores nationwide, must be losing money.

**Bham1982** · January-05-17, 08:18 AM

Eastland is toast. I bet within five years they'll demolish the enclosed mall portion and replace with strip-mall retail. Westland will probably survive a bit longer, but is probably doomed too, at least in mall format.

Malls are doing reasonably well, but only upscale-leaning malls. Discount shoppers go to Target, Meijer or Walmart and malls anchored by Sears and JCPenney just don't work anymore.

Somerset, Twelve Oaks, Village at Rochester Hills and Partridge Creek are all very successful malls. The rest are generally struggling.

KMart will be gone within 5 years, and Sears within 10. Macys is still healthy and profitable and will be fine long-term, but needs to shed more properties in declining malls. They still have too many leases in so-so malls [[Southland, Fairlane, Oakland, Lakeside, etc.). At least they got rid of the total junk locations [[Summit Place, Northland, Eastland, Westland).

**Scottathew** · January-05-17, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by 401don

I keep waiting for the big shoe to drop - Sears closing North American wide.

I'm frankly shocked that K-Mart is still a thing anywhere. I think Sears can survive in the biggest\highest traffic of malls.

I worked for K-Mart back in the day when Walmart hadn't penetrated every corner of the Earth. K-Mart simply sucked and never updated for modern times.

**1953** · January-05-17, 09:48 AM

As an Eastsider myself, this really seems like it should be a focusing event for east side communities to get together and plan action steps to improve the health of the area.

What is the future of east side communities? They are aging, they have decaying infrastructure, the homes are small and not in keeping with trends in U.S. real estate. There is no walk-ability. Something must be done.

I might just go see my local planning officials.

1953

**Shai_Hulud** · January-05-17, 09:49 AM

I agree with everything posted here, we knew the Eastland Macy's would be going sooner or later and the mall will probably follow soon enough.

I like Macy's and while I like the prices it's obvious they're dependent on discounts. The sale papers come at least once a week, the house brands are always 40% off and the national brands alternate between 10-20% off.

Sears still has some nice items and brands but tools and appliances used to get families into the store. They have given up so much quality and ground on hardware that now there does not seem to be much reason to go inside.

Going in K-Mart is like time travel. The last time I went in one it looked almost exactly the same as when I was a child down to the laminate counters and old school credit card scanners.

**Lowell** · January-05-17, 10:00 AM

I'm surprised Westland is still kicking. Sadly this may truly be the death blow just as Hudson's departure did to downtown. I haven't been to Westland in quite a while but it seemed in its death throes when I did the following 'ring of death' photoshoot in 2009. Several big box stores and strip malls had sprung up along the perimeter road of the core mall. Most had failed. It gave meaning to the long-running nickname for Westland among my truck-driving days friends: Wasteland.

Best Buy

TJ Max

Sam's Club

Service Merchandise

Mexican Restaurant?

Mega Grocery Store

Circuit City

BP Gas Station

No Name big Box

And of course the famous Quo Vadis theater

**Hypestyles** · January-05-17, 10:02 AM

hopefully the sale prices will be substantive. Men's clothes in particular.

**mtburb** · January-05-17, 11:10 AM

Well, I'm surprised Target didn't announce the closure of their Eastland store in the lead of the Macy's announcement [[like what happened with Northland).

And now I'm expecting Sears to close their Westland store too.