New York Post August 11, 2016 by Lisa Fickenscher
Macy’s is closing 100 stores and Wall Street rewarded it with a standing ovation.
Shares shot up nearly 17 percent Thursday after the nation’s biggest department store chain announced the closures and pointed to an improvement in sales trends after six straight quarters of declines.
Slimming down the 748-store count by 14 percent is a key part of Macy’s turnaround strategy, which also includes leveraging its significant real estate assets.
The retailer is selling its highly successful men’s store in Union Square, San Francisco, with plans to reinvest the valuable real estate proceeds in other parts of the company, such as beefing up its digital bona fides.
“We now believe we are set up well to proceed to a comeback,” Macy’s Chairman and CEO Terry Lundgren said in a statement. “Our sales strengthened month-by-month throughout the second quarter. This trend improvement gives us confidence in our plans for the back half of the year, and in our strategic planning for improvements to our business model going forward.”
