Two Washington state Macy’s stores — the Everett Mall location and one in Kelso — are part of the retailer’s plans to close 100 stores nationwide. And Sears announced a number of closures, including at Alderwood mall.
Macy’s is closing its Everett Mall location, part of the beleaguered department store’s plan to close 100 stores nationwide, reduce expenses and focus on expanding its online and off-price store efforts.
The 133,000-square-foot Everett Mall store, which opened in 1977 and has 109 employees, will close this year, according to Macy’s. It’s one of the anchor tenants at Everett Mall, along with Sears.
Also closing in 2017 will be the 51,000-square-foot Macy’s at Three Rivers Mall in Kelso, which employs 57 people.
Department stores have been hard hit lately, as Sears also announced a number of closures, including at Alderwood mall.
Most Read Business Stories
In total, Macy’s announced on Wednesday the locations of 68 stores that it plans to close by midyear. They are all part of the company’s previously announced plan to shutter 100 stores. There are currently 730 Macy’s stores.
Terry Lundgren, Macy’s chairman and CEO, said that while the company was pleased with the strong performance of its online business, “we continue to experience declining traffic in our stores where the majority of our business is still transacted.”
The closures announced Wednesday are expected to generate annual expense savings of $550 million. That money will go toward investing $250 million in expanding its digital efforts; growing Macy’s Backstage, its discount stores, and Bluemercury, a spa retail chain Macy’s acquired in 2015; and developing business in China, the company said.
The company on Wednesday also reported weak holiday sales and lowered its earnings guidance for the year. During the all-important holiday shopping season in November and December, sales at stores open at least a year declined 2.1 percent.
“While our sales trend is consistent with the lower end of our guidance, we had anticipated sales would be stronger,” Lundgren said in a news release. “We believe that our performance during the holiday season reflects the broader challenges facing much of the retail industry.”
Sears Holdings also recently announced that it would be closing 42 Sears stores and 108 Kmart stores nationwide this spring.
The closures include the Sears store and auto center at Alderwood mall and the Kmart location at 6132 Sixth Avenue in Tacoma.
Those stores will close at the end of March.