Macy’s will shutter five of its nine New York City locations this year as the retail chain moves to massively reduce its brick-and-mortar footprint.
The closures will hit Macy’s stores in Downtown Brooklyn and the Queens Center Mall, its discount “Backstage” locations in Sheepshead Bay and The Bronx and its furniture gallery on Staten Island.
Other nearby closures include Macy’s store at the Lake Success Shopping Center in New Hyde Park and the Walt Whitman mall location in Huntington. The company’s flagship Herald Square store will not be affected.
Macy’s said most of the stores listed will start going-out-of-business sales in Q1. The company did not specify when in the year it expects the Brooklyn store at 422 Fulton St. to close.
The closures announced Thursday are among 150 stores the chain plans to close in the next three years. After that plan, the chain will have about 350 stores remaining.
Department stores have been in decline and continual reinvention in recent decades, trying to find a formula that can compete for shoppers with discount stores like Walmart and Target on one end and online retailing led by Amazon on the other.
Tony Spring, chairman and CEO of Macy’s, said in a statement: “Closing any store is never easy, but as part of our Bold New Chapter strategy, we are closing underproductive Macy’s stores to allow us to focus our resources and prioritize investments in our go–forward stores, where customers are already responding positively to better product offerings and elevated service.”
Macy’s will have five stores remaining inside the city limits following the closures, with two in the Bronx, one in Brooklyn, one on Staten Island and its main Manhattan flagship.
Crain’s reporter Kirk Pinho contributed.