Macy’s is the latest retailer to fire workers and close stores to “become a more streamlined company.”
The department store announced that it will cut 2,350 employees, not including seasonal hires, on Jan. 26, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The number includes about 13% of the company’s corporate staff, but accounts for only 3.5% of its overall workforce.
“As we prepare to deploy a new strategy to meet the needs of an everchanging consumer and marketplace, we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 3.5% to become a more streamlined company,” a company spokesperson told CNN.
Employees were informed by memo on Thursday.
The company will be adding more automation to its supply chain and will outsource some of the jobs that are being cut, but company officials didn’t immediately give specifics, the Journal reported. It will also add more visual display managers to direct how stores look and upgrade digital functions to make online shopping more integrated.
Several other companies, including Google, Amazon and Wayfair, have announced job cuts in the new year, USA Today reported.
Five Macy’s locations are scheduled to close, the Journal reported. The stores are:
- Ballston Quarter in Arlington, Virgnia.
- Bayfair Center in San Leandro, California.
- Kukui Grove Center in Lihue, Hawaii.
- Simi Valley Town Center in Simi Valley, California.
- Governor’s Square in Tallahassee, Florida.
Macy’s, which is known for its Thanksgiving Day parade, opened in 1858 and has about 500 locations and 55 Bloomingdale’s stores, CNN reported. The company has tried to reinvent itself several times recently, including introducing new brands and opening smaller stores, but those strategies haven’t helped enough in the long-term.
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