More retail rethinking at Macy’s
[...] the not-so-good news.
“It’s retail closure season,” said Garrick Brown, vice president of research at DTZ Global, a commercial real estate services firm headquartered in Chicago.
The company is also hiring 150 more people at its digital technology office in San Francisco, plus 1,500 new employees at one of its Amazon-style direct-to-consumer fulfillment centers in Oklahoma.
“We must continue to invest in our business to focus on where the customer is headed — to prepare for what’s next,” he said, referring to shopping by smartphone and tablet, store and warehouse delivery to your front door, and other components of “omnichannel” retailing.
Besides the store closings, merchandising and marketing will henceforth be under one roof — “a hybrid of store and online buying (that) will support the entire Macy’s business to encourage both store and digital growth.”
The goal: “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,” said Lundgren.
[...] with the increase in Macy’s digital technology office in San Francisco, and new store openings, the total workforce “is expected to remain at a level of approximately 175,000 associates,” the company said.