Macy’s to cut up to 4,800 jobs after weak holiday sales

Staff/wire report

NEW YORK

Macy’s is cutting up to 4,800 jobs and has slashed its profit outlook after miserable holiday sales.

The nation’s largest department store chain, which also operates upscale Bloomingdale’s, said about 2,110 of the job cuts will come from reducing staffing levels at stores, eliminating duplications in back- office operations and consolidating regional store groups. The remaining 2,710 job cuts will come from the store closings that Macy’s announced last fall, says Macy’s spokesman Jim Sluzewski.

As of Wednesday, Macy’s had about 163,000 workers.

The moves, announced Wednesday, are part of Macy’s ongoing campaign to make its operations more nimble to compete in a world where increasingly demanding shoppers are going back and forth between stores and their mobile devices. Analysts expect more retailers to reduce their store count after the holiday season that showed a surge in online spending but lower traffic counts to physical stores.

The Cincinnati-based department store chain says sales at existing stores and excluding licensed departments fell 5.2 percent in November and December.

Macy’s said unseasonably warm weather that extended through December was the biggest culprit and hurt shopper demand for cold-weather items, from boots to coats. That forced Macy’s to step up discounts to clear out mounds of merchandise. Business also was hurt by lower spending by international tourists.

“In some cases, there will be short-term pain as we tighten our belt and realign our resources,” said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and chief executive at Macy’s Inc. in a statement. “But our eye is on a long-term vision of Macy’s Inc. as a dynamic retailer that serves existing customers and acquires new ones through innovative approaches.”

The company listed which 40 stores it would close or had closed. In Ohio, stores at Chapel Hill Mall in Akron, with 91 associates, and Midway Mall in Elyria, with 64 associates, will close. In Pennsylvania, Suburban Square in Ardmore, Pa., with 74 associates, and the Macy’s inside the Century III Mall in West Mifflin, Pa., with 101 associates, will close.