California Apparel News

Macy’s Inc. announced Dec. 8 that it would build two stores in California and that it would close a few under performing stores in the state. The news was part of an announcement of sweeping changes at the department-store giant.

The retailer will build a new Bloomingdale’s at the Westfield Valley Fair shopping center in Santa Clara, Calif. The Silicon Valley mall is undergoing a major expansion. The new Bloomingdale’s is scheduled to be three stories and take up 150,000 square feet. It is forecast to open in fall 2017.

At Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, the retailer will demolish a 39-year-old Macy’s department store and construct a 155,000-square-foot department store that is scheduled to open in November 2016.

The retailer also announced that it would close 14 Macy’s stores by early spring 2015, with three of those stores in California. Slated for closure is the Macy’s in Vallco Shopping Mall, formerly called Cupertino Square Mall in Cupertino, Calif. The 177,000-square-foot store employs 111 associates. Also to be closed will be the 192,000-square-foot Macy’s in the Westfield Promenade at Woodland Hills, Calif. It employed 112 associates. The 81,000-square-foot furniture store also will be closed. A company statement said that some of its associates will be offered jobs in nearby stores. Others will be offered severance benefits.

Along with changes in stores, Macy’s will explore new business opportunities, such as developing an off-price business.

It is scheduled to hire more than 150 people for its San Francisco–based digital technology office in order to increase its capabilities in e-commerce, mobile commerce and digital retailing.

Macy’s Inc. is building a 1.3-million-square-foot fulfillment center in Tulsa County, Okla. It is scheduled to open in April and will employ 1,500 permanent workers and 1,000 seasonal workers.

The retailer intends to restructure its major merchandising and marketing offices. Macy’s Inc. intends to make one unified merchandising and marketing organization, which will be a hybrid of store and online buying. In the past, separate departments handled merchandising for physical and online Macy’s. Bloomingdale’s will follow a similar organizational path, said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s Inc.

“Going forward, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s will be better able to move more quickly and nimbly to select merchandise, assort inventories, and serve total customer demand, no matter how, when or where the customer shops. Some redundant activity also can be avoided to accelerate speed to market, partner more effectively with vendor resources and ensure the merchandising organizations are more responsive to the marketplace in making and implementing decisions,” Lundgren said in a statement.

Macy’s also will discontinue district planner positions for its stores and build regional teams that will look to localize merchandise in Macy’s Inc.’s fleet of 830 stores.

In other department-store news, JC Penney Co. also announced that it will close 40 stores in 2015 and cut more than 2,000 jobs. None of the stores slated for closure are located in California, according to media reports.