Macy’s is partly betting its future on a new shop opening first in Southlake Town Square
Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette ne some wins, and he thinks he has a promising one about 25 miles northwest of downtown Dallas.
The largest U.
S. department store retailer will open its first Market by Macy’s in the upscale suburban shopping center of Southlake Town Square on Thursday.
The new concept, the brainchild of Macy’s brand experience officer Rachel Shechtman, will be front and center Wednesday when Gennette meets with Wall Street analysts to update investors on the company, which has lost a third of its market value over the last year.
Macy’s said Tuesday it will close 125 stores — of its 674 total — over the next three years and lay off about 2,000 workers.
Macy’s is also shutting down its second headquarters in Cincinnati and consolidating its digital headquarters in San Francisco to New York, the company said. It estimated the cost of exiting those stores and operations will be about $450 million to $490 million.
It’s also closing customer service center in Tempe, Ariz., and consolidating that operation into its Mason, Ohio, and Clearwater, Fla.
, facilities. All together, the retailer said, the moves will save the company $1.
5 billion a year starting in 2022.
Gennette said it’s planning to grow with its off-price concept and new small-store format.
The 20,000-square-foot Market by Macy’s — about a 10th of the size of a big multi-level Macy’s anchor store — is one of two concepts Gennette says Macy’s has created to appeal to that “large swath that’s not shopping in malls today.”
The other newish concept is Macy’s Backstage, developed in 2015 as an answer to discounters such as T.
J. Maxx and Nordstrom Rack that have shaved market from U.
S. department stores.
The plan is to step up expansion of Backstage, adding 50 more this year. Most of its 200 existing Backstage stores are carved into existing Macy’s department stores with separate entrances and a different mix of merchandise.
Some of the new Backstage stores may be freestanding locations similar to seven of the early ones that opened in the Northeast, he said. Backstage stores are posting sales increases while Macy’s overall has reported weaker sales trends in recent months.
At the same time, Macy’s is remodeling its mall stores in strong, viable centers. So far, 150 Macy’s stores have been upgraded, and 100 are planned for this year, including Macy’s at The Parks Mall at Arlington.
NorthPark Center in Dallas and Stonebriar Center in Frisco were in an initial batch in 2018, and Galleria Dallas was upgraded last year.
“We’re investing in the malls where the developers are, too,” Gennette said.
“These are the still-vital malls that are standing the test of time.”
Macy’s has been spending about $1 billion a year on its business, including its online operation, which generates sales of more than $6 billion a year.
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JPG” />Women’s clothing in the Market by Macy’s in Southlake Town Square.(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)
The plan is to open a few Market by Macy’s locations this year and not just one in each market, Gennette said.
Macy’s is looking for upscale lifestyle centers where many of its customers from the malls have gravitated. And, like all Macy’s stores, the new shops are places where customers can pick up and bring back online purchases.
Fort Worth is the next stop with a Market by Macy’s in WestBend, a new office and retail development near the Fort Worth Zoo that houses Bonobos, Warby Parker and restaurants HG Sply Co. and East Hampton Sandwich Co.
Macy’s-owned Bluemercury is open there and at Southlake Town Square.
Atlanta and Washington, D.
C., are in the works, he said.
