Macy’s Plans to Lay Off 2,500, Though Its Holiday Sales Were Up

While it reported solid holiday sales on Wednesday, Macy’s also announced several cost-cutting measures, including plans to lay off 2,500 employees.þþ“Our company has significantly increased sales and profitability over the past four years,” Terry J. Lundgren, Macy’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We have identified some specific areas where we can improve our efficiency without compromising our effectiveness in serving the evolving needs of our customers.”þþMacy’s said sales at stores open for at least a year and online at macys.com and bloomingdales.com grew 3.6 percent in November and December over the same period in 2012.þþA report by the research firm ShopperTrak, also released Wednesday, found that sales at brick-and-mortar stores over all increased a lackluster 2.7 percent. (While online shopping is a growing force, more than 90 percent of retail commerce in the United States still occurs in stores, according to ShopperTrak.)þþMacy’s announced several other measures on Wednesday, including plans to close stores in certain locations early this spring — in Irondequoit, N.Y., for example, and Murray, Utah — while opening Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores in other areas. The company also said it would combine the Midwest and the North region of the country into one larger organizational chunk. The company said it expected to save about $100 million a year with the changes, beginning this year.þþThe news, released shortly before the stock market closed, moved Macy’s stock upward. It rose 2.6 percent in after-hours trading.þþThe last time Macy’s laid off several thousand workers was in 2009, when the company consolidated four large divisions into a single organization and cut 7,000 jobs. But 2009 was in the midst of the recession, and these days, things are looking bright for Macy’s. The company reported good growth in the third quarter, even as many of its competitors reported disappointing earnings and trimmed their forecasts for the year.þþWhile it is little comfort to those about to join the ranks of the unemployed in a still-difficult economy, Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, said that cutting costs was just part of “good expense discipline,” even in healthy times.þþ“You hate to say it, but employees are easier to let go of than physical stores, particularly if you’re an anchor tenant,” Mr. Johnson said.þþMacy’s said that laid-off employees would be eligible for severance, and that with positions being added in other parts of the company, including its online operations arm, its work force would remain at about 175,000 people.þþAlso on Wednesday, J. C. Penney released a three-sentence statement saying it was “pleased” with its holiday performance and reaffirming its outlook for the fourth quarter of 2013. The company did not release any numbers, and its shares sank 10 percent.þþ“There wasn’t any content,” Mr. Johnson said of the Penney announcement. “They would have been better off if they had said nothing at all.”