Macy's at Summit Place Closing

[Traveller1]

Nationally, Macy's hasn't been doing very well. Plus, Summit Place has been declining for many years. How can an old mall like Summit Place compete with malls like Somerset Collection, Twelve Oaks, Great Lakes Crossing, and Patridge Creek? Not to mention all the stand alone competition that all those malls have today such as Kohls, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Target, Meijer, etc...

It's a very big suprise that Summit Place is still opertaing today.

[Onthe405]

Nationally, Macy's hasn't been doing very well.

Traveller, you bring up yet another issue in this story. IMO [[as well as many corporate strategists) Macy's senior management has been way too slow in reacting to the over-retailed/reduced demand US economy. Only closing 5 out of 849 stores? This may very well lead to their demise.

Their first stupid move was taking on a crushing amount of debt in order to acquire their primary competitor, May Department Stores, at a time when it was already obvious the economy was going to implode and the department store market share of retail continues to slide.

The second blunder was obliterating May’s nameplates/product lines [[Burdine’s, Field’s, Robinson’s-May, Foley’s, et al) which created a unique “home-town department store” identity for each region of the country. Why would a tourist bother to shop at Chicago’s [[once resplendent) former Marshall Field store, when they can find the same cheap, overpriced cr*p at their local mall?

This national, one-brand strategy was driven largely by the misguided & narcissistic notion that the entire nation is somehow enthralled and enamored with their [[once) iconic Herald Square store. Anyone who has been to this bland, run-down, disheveled store in the past 25 years knows otherwise. The fact that a McDonald's is the only sit-down restaurant in the store speaks volumes as to how it has declined.

Thirdly, it couldn’t be more obvious that the future of retail is not on their side. Consequently, it’s time to wake up and downsize to a core group of maybe 300-400 profitable, successful stores instead of the other remaining 400 losers that pull the others down. Saks, Neiman’s, and Nordstrom have it all over Macy’s on the high end on both service & quality. Kohl’s & JCP have them backed against the wall at the mid-tier, and Target & Wal-Mart are mopping up the floor with all of them.

[dtowncitylover]

Traveller, you bring up yet another issue in this story. IMO [[as well as many corporate strategists) Macy's senior management has been way too slow in reacting to the over-retailed/reduced demand US economy. Only closing 5 out of 849 stores? This may very well lead to their demise.

Their first stupid move was taking on a crushing amount of debt in order to acquire their primary competitor, May Department Stores, at a time when it was already obvious the economy was going to implode and the department store market share of retail continues to slide.

The second blunder was obliterating May’s nameplates/product lines [[Burdine’s, Field’s, Robinson’s-May, Foley’s, et al) which created a unique “home-town department store� identity for each region of the country. Why would a tourist bother to shop at Chicago’s [[once resplendent) former Marshall Field store, when they can find the same cheap, overpriced cr*p at their local mall?

This national, one-brand strategy was driven largely by the misguided & narcissistic notion that the entire nation is somehow enthralled and enamored with their [[once) iconic Herald Square store. Anyone who has been to this bland, run-down, disheveled store in the past 25 years knows otherwise. The fact that a McDonald's is the only sit-down restaurant in the store speaks volumes as to how it has declined.

Thirdly, it couldn’t be more obvious that the future of retail is not on their side. Consequently, it’s time to wake up and downsize to a core group of maybe 300-400 profitable, successful stores instead of the other remaining 400 losers that pull the others down. Saks, Neiman’s, and Nordstrom have it all over Macy’s on the high end on both service & quality. Kohl’s & JCP have them backed against the wall at the mid-tier, and Target & Wal-Mart are mopping up the floor with all of them.

I agree. As a former employee, I can tell you that my store had incompetant managers and durng training it seemed that Macy's had no plan whatsoever. They seem to be very desperate and veteran employees told me that the store and company have gone downhill since the takeover. At least Marshall Field's kept Hudson's reputation.

[davewindsor]

Nationally, Macy's hasn't been doing very well. Plus, Summit Place has been declining for many years. How can an old mall like Summit Place compete with malls like Somerset Collection, Twelve Oaks, Great Lakes Crossing, and Patridge Creek? Not to mention all the stand alone competition that all those malls have today such as Kohls, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, Target, Meijer, etc...

It's a very big suprise that Summit Place is still opertaing today.

How can an old mall like Summit Place compete? When I was in Toronto, I heard of a dying mall in a crummy area in an annexed city North of Pearson airport called Woodbine Mall. They added an indoor amusement park http://www.fantasyfair.ca/ and the soccer moms started coming back and all the store spaces were leased again. Does metro have any malls with indoor amusement parks? Perhaps, there's some non-progressive thinking on the part of landlords in wanting to make their malls work in a metro area of 5+ million people.