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Macy's giant restructuring looms over its Cincinnati work force as the majority of its 10,000 job cuts will be administrative positions:
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So far, no locations in Greater Cincinnati are closing. The lease on Macy's Downtown store is set to expire in January 2018.
The store closures will impact about 3,900 retail associates. But the company also plans to slash 6,200 mostly back office employees.
Roughly 4,000 work for Macy's in Greater Cincinnati, including 1,000 at the Downtown headquarters, 2,000 at its Mason and Springdale offices. About 1,000 people work at Macy's stores Downtown and in Kenwood Towne Centre, Florence Mall, Tri-County Mall, Northgate Mall and Anderson Towne Center and home and furniture stores in Florence and Sycamore Township.
"We continue to experience declining traffic in our stores where the majority of our business is still transacted," said CEO Terry Lundgren.>>
Retailers also worry about the impact of a border tax adjustment plan now under consideration by the incoming Trump administration and Congressional Republicans.
Such a plan would raise the cost of goods for American consumers while slashing corporate income taxes. Consumption and retail sales of imported goods and of goods with significant imported content (such as vehicles) should plummet due to higher prices, with a net negative impact on retailers.
Macy's decline goes back to July, 2015. After 7 years of steady monthly growth for 84 months, the stock sold at $71+ per share up to the day in July 2015 when Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren dumped a line of Trump's menswear for political reasons, starting a nonstop crash of Macy's stock from that exact date to today without a break and which is now down to $30 per share. Half of America was insulted by this boob, Lundgren. Not a good plan for a retailer.
Perhaps Macy's could beg Eric Trump for forgiveness and try to get the line back.
Perhaps Macy's could beg Eric Trump for forgiveness and try to get the line back.
And insult more than half of America? Trump might be the most divisive president since Lincoln, and he offers none of Lincoln's attributes IMO.
Amazon and web shopping is most often blamed for Macy's retail fortunes. Amazon entering the apparel market and the advent of its Prime service are chief culprits. I've heard no retail analyst attribute Macy's misfortunes to its dumping of the Trump line.
Macy's decline goes back to July, 2015. After 7 years of steady monthly growth for 84 months, the stock sold at $71+ per share up to the day in July 2015 when Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren dumped a line of Trump's menswear for political reasons, starting a nonstop crash of Macy's stock from that exact date to today without a break and which is now down to $30 per share. Half of America was insulted by this boob, Lundgren. Not a good plan for a retailer.
Perhaps Macy's could beg Eric Trump for forgiveness and try to get the line back.
I'm a huge Trump fan, but that is not a big factor in their loss of business. There are four factors in why they lost business: 1) Dumping the Lazarus and Marshall Field's name, and other local nameplates too; and 2) too much house brand merchandise and not enough name brands; 3) too much ghetto clothing; and 4) sticker price too expensive (even though it is ultimately designed to be discounted).
Their house brands suck - too much polyester.
KROGER WAS SMART ENOUGH TO KEEP THE LOCAL NAMEPLATES, MACY'S WASN'T.
Lazarus used to have 12 stores in and around Columbus. They were so dominant in Columbus, that they put every other department store, including big chains like Allied, Marshall Field's (twice) and Manhattan Industries out of business. After Eastland closes, they will only have three stores in Columbus, with Eastland being a 10-year old store that is closing because they botched it. That debacle alone should have gotten Lundgren fired. Likewise in Indianapolis, Dayton and every place else where they are screwing up.
Greater Pittsburgh is closing four ex-Kaufmann's stores, counting the store in Steubenville. I bet if those stores were still run as Kaufmann's stores were, their prospects would have been much better.
Macy's has some mystique as a glamourous faraway New York department store. The reality of a chain which has stores in places like Lima, Ohio and Sioux Falls, SD has zero mystique. It's another JCPenney with higher prices and more ghetto clothing.
People like keeping things local. Kroger understands this. I would even hire a Lazarus family member to serve as a figurehead chairman of the board. Likewise with the stores in other cities.
If you want to leverage the Macy's name, your signage outside says "Kaufmann's, A Macy's, Inc. Store" or the old Lazarus-Macy's, Field's-Macy's, Bon-Macy's, etc. You can have clothing lines or boutiques that are "Exclusively @ Macy's".
Or ... you take your best store in each market and pretend it is on the level of Nordstrom. You call it Macy's and you call the rest of your stores by their legacy names.
They will never do this, of course. But if they did, the would get back at least some of their business.
Macy's decline goes back to July, 2015. After 7 years of steady monthly growth for 84 months, the stock sold at $71+ per share up to the day in July 2015 when Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren dumped a line of Trump's menswear for political reasons, starting a nonstop crash of Macy's stock from that exact date to today without a break and which is now down to $30 per share. Half of America was insulted by this boob, Lundgren. Not a good plan for a retailer.
Perhaps Macy's could beg Eric Trump for forgiveness and try to get the line back.
I'm a huge Trump fan, but that is not a big factor in their loss of business. There are four factors in why they lost business: 1) Dumping the Lazarus and Marshall Field's name, and other local nameplates too; and 2) too much house brand merchandise and not enough name brands; 3) too much ghetto clothing; and 4) sticker price too expensive (even though it is ultimately designed to be discounted).
Their house brands suck - too much polyester.
KROGER WAS SMART ENOUGH TO KEEP THE LOCAL NAMEPLATES, MACY'S WASN'T.
Lazarus used to have 12 stores in and around Columbus. They were so dominant in Columbus, that they put every other department store, including big chains like Allied, Marshall Field's (twice) and Manhattan Industries out of business. After Eastland closes, they will only have three stores in Columbus, with Eastland being a 10-year old store that is closing because they botched it. That debacle alone should have gotten Lundgren fired. Likewise in Indianapolis, Dayton and every place else where they are screwing up.
Greater Pittsburgh is closing four ex-Kaufmann's stores, counting the store in Steubenville. I bet if those stores were still run as Kaufmann's stores were, their prospects would have been much better.
Macy's has some mystique as a glamourous faraway New York department store. The reality of a chain which has stores in places like Lima, Ohio and Sioux Falls, SD has zero mystique. It's another JCPenney with higher prices and more ghetto clothing.
People like keeping things local. Kroger understands this. I would even hire a Lazarus family member to serve as a figurehead chairman of the board. Likewise with the stores in other cities.
If you want to leverage the Macy's name, your signage outside says "Kaufmann's, A Macy's, Inc. Store" or the old Lazarus-Macy's, Field's-Macy's, Bon-Macy's, etc. You can have clothing lines or boutiques that are "Exclusively @ Macy's".
Or ... you take your best store in each market and pretend it is on the level of Nordstrom. You call it Macy's and you call the rest of your stores by their legacy names.
They will never do this, of course. But if they did, the would get back at least some of their business.
Most analysts believed that consolidating all of the local chains under the Macy's nameplate was beneficial, because it provided great economies of scale in advertising and name recognition, such as with the Thanksgiving Day parade.
Macy's definitely failed at merchandising, however, losing a localized focus. Supposedly, this was corrected.
Amazon has come from nowhere to have a 37 percent share of online holiday retail sales.
Warehouse clubs and supercenters are almost three times as large as department stores based on these Nov. 2016 statistics.
In summary, online, warehouse clubs (which do sell apparel, electronics goods, general merchandise and even furniture in competition with department stores) have greatly changed the retail landscape in the last two decades.
Macy's big mistake was not changing its business model more aggressively to compete in these new sectors. For several decades, K-mart thrived by abandoning its dime store business model. Target successfully shifted from a department store format to supercenters, etc.
Most analysts believed that consolidating all of the local chains under the Macy's nameplate was beneficial, because it provided great economies of scale in advertising and name recognition, such as with the Thanksgiving Day parade.
Macy's definitely failed at merchandising, however, losing a localized focus. Supposedly, this was corrected.
Macy's big mistake was not changing its business model more aggressively to compete in these new sectors. For several decades, K-mart thrived by abandoning its dime store business model. Target successfully shifted from a department store format to supercenters, etc.
Kroger doesn't try to Krogerize all the chains it owns. It leaves the local nameplates up and tinkers with things behind the scenes. That's why Kroger is Ralph's in California, Fry's in Arizona, Smith's in Utah, King Soopers and City Market in Colorado, Dillon's in Kansas, Pick-n-Save in Wisconsin and Harris-Teeter in North Carolina.
Grocery has lower margins than department stores. If Kroger can be successful, Macy's should be able to be successful.
You are correct that merchandising is ultimately more important, but the local nameplate with 150 years of history is part of that merchandising. Safeway wrecked Dominick's in Chicago because of this, even though the stores retained their Dominick's name.
I don't think clothing purchases are ever going to be big online except for basic items (underwear, jeans, etc.). Especially with the fat American bodies that have to try things on to see how they fit. The other things Macy's sells, such as housewares, you are correct about however.
Retail is in crisis across many chains. We know half a dozen families that have moved at least twice for retail jobs after a job loss, then the new job was eliminated. CMH will be impacted by the Limited bankruptcy and there are strong rumors Abercrombie employees are waiting for significant job cuts. New Jersey has had several chains lay off thousands.
Sears and Penny's are on life support.
The world has changed and retail jobs are dying. Very sad as retail was the land of opportunity for my parents generation.
Retail is in crisis across many chains. We know half a dozen families that have moved at least twice for retail jobs after a job loss, then the new job was eliminated. CMH will be impacted by the Limited bankruptcy and there are strong rumors Abercrombie employees are waiting for significant job cuts. New Jersey has had several chains lay off thousands.
Sears and Penny's are on life support.
The world has changed and retail jobs are dying. Very sad as retail was the land of opportunity for my parents generation.
Agree except for the part about The Limited. The parent company got rid of The Limited about ten years ago and is now called L Brands. Only about 250 people work there now, but to the extent that it is another CMH company which deals in fashion, that obviously doesn't help maintain the retail infrastructure.
Grocery has lower margins than department stores. If Kroger can be successful, Macy's should be able to be successful.
I don't think apples and pears can be considered in the same way here. Kroger is about food and food sales survive depressions because people have to eat. Macy's is just another retailer and when people are broke they stop buying anything that isn't an absolute necessity. It is interesting though how Kroger retained the names of the other grocery chains in the different states. In OR Kroger was Fred Meyer, the best grocery chain there IMO.
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