DENVER, the United States, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- The list of U.S. giant retailers feeling post COVID-19 economic pain continued this week, as Bed Bath & Beyond joined Big Lots, Macy's together with Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury, and Joann Fabric announcing store closures and major cutbacks.
Bed Bath and Beyond (BBB) upped the ante Tuesday by announcing it would close an additional 150 stores by the end of next month on top of 50 already slated for plywood.
In a move that will affect thousands of employees, BBB piggybacked on its 2022 list when "operating losses have ballooned to 423 percent year-over-year in the third quarter to 450.9 million U.S. dollars, and its net loss grew by 42.2 percent to reach about 393 million U.S. dollars," according to The Hill, an American newspaper and digital media company.
Much like BBB, one of the biggest U.S. chain of domestic merchandise retail stores, discount chain Big Lots announced "an accelerated number of closures this year" during its earnings call last month, The Hill reported this week, adding that inflation slowed consumer spending and would result in big losses.
In the first week of January, Macy's said it was closing four of its locations at shopping malls as part of its Polaris strategy, its years-long plan to position the company for growth and profitability, an article from media brand Modern Retail said Wednesday, noting that the upscale chain is looking at more rural, less affluent areas for possible expansion.
The New York-based department store chain, which also operates upscale Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury stores, said last Friday in a statement that sales for the November-to-January period would fall in the low end to the midpoint of its expected range of 8.16 billion U.S. dollars to 8.4 billion U.S. dollars.
"Based on current macro-economic indicators and our proprietary credit card data, we believe the consumer will continue to be pressured in 2023, particularly in the first half, and have planned inventory mix and depth of initial buys accordingly," said Macy's CEO Jeff Gennette in a statement, and that the company's adjusted earnings per share for the period should meet the projected range of 1.47 U.S. dollars to 1.67 U.S. dollars.
Macy's confirmed to USA Today and Axios on Monday that it was shuttering stores in Los Angeles, Fort Collins, Colorado, Gaithersburg, Maryland and Kaneohe, Hawaii.
All four of the impacted stores are located in malls, a company representative told USA Today. Affected employees will be offered jobs at nearby locations or severance packages.
These closures are part of a plan announced in February 2020 when Macy's confirmed it planned to close 125 of "its least productive stores" over three years, The Hill said this week.
Macy's store closures also happened in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
"It's unclear if Macy's plans to close any additional stores in 2023," Nexstar reported, and that a "representative for Macy's did not immediately respond to Nexstar's request for comment if additional stores will close in 2023."
Macy's, the historic American retail giant, was founded in New York City in 1858, and has been aggressively making moves for the past half decade to avert losses, closing 100 stores and axing 10,000 jobs in 2018, an article of The New York Times said.
The company had 130,000 employees and annual revenue of 24.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, and in 2019 was operating 867 stores, including Macy's, Backstage, Bloomingdale's, Bloomingdale's Outlets, and Bluemercury, after being ranked 120th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations by revenue.
The pandemic, inflation and ecommerce have hurt the staggering giant, industry analysis noted, along with other such once-anchor shopping mall retailers. Currently there are 512 Macy's retail stores, according to Macys.com, with 92 retail stores, almost 20 percent, in California.
In Colorado, Big Lots and Macy's have either shuttered or planned to close four locations soon, according to the The Denver Post.
Although several big-box stores said the cut-backs are part of "re-alignments," Bed Bath & Beyond's sudden statement this week that included closing "a handful of its Buy Buy BABY and Harmon stores" added to industry concerns that shipping malls are headed further downhill, according to Tegna, an American broadcast, digital media and marketing services company.
In recent years, consumers have debated whether the American tradition of big-box stores and malls is dying as shopping habits shift from in-person to online, The Denver Post article noted.
Digital sales in the United States hit 1.05 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, with only China outperforming at 2.88 trillion U.S. dollars, according to eMarketer, a market research company.
Last year, Business Insider said that in the next decade, there may be only 150 shopping malls left in the United States, as trends toward ecommerce have crippled the once-underpinning of American spending culture.
"There are currently around 700 malls in the US, down from 2,500 in the 1980s. Malls have suffered as online sales boomed," Business Insider noted.
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