Macy’s will close about 150 department stores, but open new locations of better performing chains

As Macy’s chases sales growth, the department store operator said Tuesday that it will close about 150 of its namesake stores and open more shops with better locations or a luxury focus.

The changes reflect a focus on what’s working at Macy’s — higher-end department store Bloomingdale’s and beauty chain Bluemercury — and what’s not — its namesake stores, particularly the ones at struggling malls. In its holiday quarter results posted Tuesday, the retailer said its Macy’s department stores performed worse than both Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury.

As it reported earnings, Macy’s shared its strategy for the future. The strategy shift comes weeks after former Bloomingdale’s CEO Tony Spring started as Macy’s CEO earlier this month.

Macy’s had already announced in January that it would close five namesake stores and lay off more than 2,300 people.

In a CNBC interview on Tuesday, Spring said the company is shaking up its store footprint after taking a hard look at which stores are in the right spots — and which are not.

“We have some stores that are just underproductive or not as profitable, and we have to address that,” he said. “Conversely, we have stores that are highly productive and highly profitable. We have markets and stores and centers we’re not in today that we’d like to be in.”

Here’s a closer look at Macy’s major store announcements, broken down by store brand.

Sales at Macy’s namesake stores have lagged the most — and that business will see the biggest changes.

The company plans to close about 150 stores, including 50 that will close by early 2025. It has not shared those locations, but said they are “unproductive.”

The stores that it had already said would be…