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MACY’S employees have revealed that one store is closing in weeks while the chain issues a dismal update on the rest of its operations.
After almost seven decades in business, the Macy’s store in the Salem Center in Oregon is set to close.
Macy’s is shuttering its Salem Center location (stock)[/caption]
Much of the store is already bare, according to employees, as it prepares to close in March[/caption]
The last remaining anchor store in the shopping mall opened in 1955 serving customers with clothing, cookware, and other home essentials.
Employees of the location have confirmed the news as large parts of the store are vacant with bare shelves, according to the Statesman Journal.
It comes after Macy’s confirmed on Tuesday that 65 locations will be closing by the end of the fiscal year in February.
However, the exact locations of these doomed stores have not been publicly listed.
But, employees of the Salem store have told customers that the location will be closed by March.
One worker who has remained anonymous told the Salem Reporter that all employees were informed of the closure in October.
The news has left many fans of the department chain devastated.
“I’ve bought a lot of things here, I enjoy the store, and it’s going to be sad because our next Macy’s will be (about) 50 miles away,” customer Susan Brewer told the Statesman.
“I think it’s a loss to our city.”
“When people start having to travel to purchase items they’ll purchase other items, so it’ll be a loss to other stores as well, and it will also encourage people to do more online, which will be me,” she continued.
“I’m not going to drive 50 miles.”
There are eight Macy’s locations throughout the state with the nearest to Salem being in Tigard and Eugene.
The closure of the Salem store marks another major loss for the Salem Center which has already lost major anchor stores including Nordstrom in 2018 and JCPenney in 2020.
“We have lost a lot,” Brewer said, adding that city officials must work to make the downtown area more attractive to both investors and locals.
Kelly McDonald who has invested in Salem and is part of the group JLL that bought the shopping mall last year has big plans for the space.
US braces for '45,000 store closures'
Some 45,000 bricks-and-mortar stores could close in the next five years, experts have warned.
Several major retailers have announced store closures or gone out of business altogether in recent years.
Chains such as Foot Locker, Sally Beauty, Tuesday Morning, Shore City, Z Gallerie, and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams have all gone out of business.
Bed Bath & Beyond has closed all of its brick-and-mortar stores and is now an online-only retailer.
The most affected retailers have been clothing, consumer electronics, sporting goods, hobby, book, music, and home furnishing stores since the start of 2019.
UBS has predicted the total number of retail stores will drop by 45k from 958k to 913k.
Despite that, the report says that certain stores should thrive while others decline.
It said retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and Target, could be among the winners.
He revealed that the 188,000-square-foot store is most likely set to close in the spring, echoing comments from employees, as his group sets out plans to re-energize the building.
“We have a big vision for the space. Putting it all together, it’s no small task,” he told the Salem Reporter.
The “vision” includes remodelling the building into smaller retail and entertainment spaces and introducing a bigger tenant that will take up between 25,000 and 40,000 square feet of the mall, he said.
McDonald eased concerns about demolition, confirming that that is not part of the plan, and added that neither is converting any of it into housing.
“It’s just changing. It’s not what we remember growing up. It’s going to be new memories for a different generation,” he said.
“We want to bring it back to life.”
Macy’s is not the only chain that is experiencing store closures.
Big Lots has confirmed that another store is set to close as it launches liquidation sales.
Nordstrom has also confirmed the loss of multiple locations in just a matter of weeks.
