More than 60 "underproductive" Macy's stores across the country will close, including one store in Illinois, the department store said in an announcement Friday.
The closures come as the once bustling retailer continues its shift to a "Bold New Chapter" strategy that includes a greater focus on luxury brands and smaller footprint stores. The strategy also includes closing approximately 150 "underproductive stores," while also upgrading as many as 350.
The move is part of a three-year plan to close the "underproductive" stores and upgrade other locations, Macy's said.
"Closing any store is never easy, but as part of our Bold New Chapter strategy, we are closing underproductive Macy’s stores to allow us to focus our resources and prioritize investments in our go-forward stores, where customers are already responding positively to better product offerings and elevated service," Tony Spring, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s, Inc., said in the release.
The 66 stores slated for closure spanned major metro areas across the country, including Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Kansas City, St. Louis, Brooklyn, Memphis and Houston.
In Illinois, one Macy's store was set to close, at 104 White Oaks Mall in Springfield, the announcement said. A full list of the 66 store closures can be found here.
It wasn't immediately clear when the stores would close.
Local
Earlier this year, a number of "small-format" Macy's stores across the country opened, including some in the Chicago area. The stores, typically in strip malls and shopping centers as opposed to large malls, are roughly one-fifth the size of its traditional stores. As of Wednesday, 24 locations across the U.S. had opened.
The retailer also opened small-format Bloomingdale's stores, called "Bloomie's," including one in Westfield Old Orchard Mall in Skokie.
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