Macy's at Summit Place Closing

[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.