This company is going to stay in business, just not with the current number of stores. Senior leadership has repeatedly stated that the optimal store count is closer to 500 than today's 600+ locations. Macy's has a lot of good things going for it right now, we are seeing significant investment back into stores in 2018 with the Growth 50 initiative, and we will see continued investment in 2019 with the expansion of the program to Growth 100 locations.
Of course, to fund the investment in these stores the company will continue to reduce and exit non-performing locations AND sell buildings that don't do much in sales BUT have huge real estate values and are owned (instead of leased). The company is currently using a real estate analytics firm to help identify locations that have been and continue to be sold for millions of dollars that are then re-invested back into stores that have been identified for future growth.
If you are in a G50 or G100 door, don't worry about your store closing. If you have recently had a Backstage added to your store, again, don't worry about your store closing (at least in the next two years). If on the other hand, you are not in a G50 or G100 location, don't have Backstage and your store does less than $15 million in annual sales, you might want to ask if your store is owned or leased, and if it is leased, when the lease is up. If it is 2019, the chances that your store is on the list for the January announcements.
The colleagues that have the most to worry about losing their jobs other than those in the closing stores are those at the region and district levels who will lose their positions as we continue to streamline and ask everyone to do more with less, less staffing, less headcount, less travel, less resources all around. In the long run, these changes will make the company stronger and position Macy's for future growth well into the future, of course that won't be much solace to those impacted by the changes.
Originally posted by @VH5aArg-1kjf.