By Mark Hallum
The Macy’s department store in Douglaston at 242-02 61st Ave. will be closing permanently at the beginning of the new year, a Macy’s spokeswoman said.
The store, which took the place of a Stern’s Department Store in May 2001, will shut its doors after its lease expires, the company announced in November.
Back in August the retail chain announced it would be shuttering100 stores due to a decline in sales, according to a press release.
“The announcements we are making today represent an advancement in our thinking on the role of stores, the quality of the shopping experience we will deliver, and how and where we reinvest in our business for growth. In the short term, our company’s topline sales will be somewhat smaller, but the changes being made will position us to grow comparable sales more quickly and generate a level of profitability that stands out among retailers,” said Macy’s President Jeff Gennette on Aug. 11.
The move was undertaken to redesign the portfolio of the business to accommodate the decrease in revenue and retain $1 billion by cutting down on overhead.
“We’re getting out in front of this,” Lundgren said on CNBC. “We’re going to still have over 530 stores in all the key markets. Forty-nine of the top 50 markets in the United States when we’re done with all of this.”
Lundgren went on to note that Macy’s is slightly behind Amazon in sales, but the smaller portfolio of Macy’s stores supplemented with the company’s own online business should be a profitable game plan going forward.
The company’s sales from the first quarter of 2016 were down 7.4 percent from 2015’s $6.2 billion, according to Macy’s 2016 earning statement.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
