Macy's to cut 7,000 jobs, slash dividend

[marmar]

via the San Francisco Chronicle:



Macy's to cut 7,000 jobs, slash dividend
By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Retail Writer

Monday, February 2, 2009


New York (AP) -- Macy's Inc. announced Monday that it will cut 7,000 jobs, almost 4 percent of its work force, reduce its contributions to its employees' retirement funds and slash its dividend to preserve cash amid a severe pullback in consumer spending.

The Cincinnati-based department store chain also delivered bleak earnings and sales forecasts for the year.

Macy's said the cuts, which include some unfilled jobs and 1,900 positions being eliminated in a restructuring now under way nationwide, will come at corporate offices, stores and other locations. The company employs about 180,000 people.

Macy's announced last month — on the heels of the worst holiday shopping season in decades — that it would close 11 stores, affecting 960 employees. The company expects the additional actions announced Monday to lower its annual selling, general and administrative expenses about $400 million starting in 2010.

The company also slashed its quarterly dividend to 5 cents from 13.25 cents. The dividend will be paid on April 1 to shareholders of record March 13. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/02/financial/f102819S99.DTL

[taught_me_patience]

1. kick

:popcorn:

Gonna watch the DU ridicule brigade come in and say "Macy's is a luxury retailer... who buys their crap anyways?" or "they better get used to it...".

[Dreamer Tatum]

4. Other acceptable replies include

1. "I bought a shirt there in 1972 and it had a loose thread, so screw them and everyone who ever worked there."

2. "Why, if only all their senior execs worked for free and gave their entire fortunes to the company, they could save 100 of those jobs for the rest of the year!"

3. "My neighbor just happens to be the official forecaster of retail doom, and he says that by next month, only WalMart and Taco Bell will be left standing!"

4. "All department stores should be giving merchandise away for free, since they've been screwing over the little guy for decades."

and so forth. Just saved a lot of people a lot of typing.

[pacalo]

6. Ding ding ding ding ding!

We've had two Macy's open up in our area. One is a beautiful tri-level with a nice garage attached & run by impressive professionals.

The other is a re-construction of an abandoned Macy's, previously a tri-level but was redone as a two-level. A very good source of mine says that the management there is about on the same level as those who'd manage Dollar Stores. There is virtually no communication from managers, other than morning "pep-talks" & it seems like they're scraping the barrel for employees because there have been a number of theft incidents. She worked there for a couple of months before she'd had enough of what she referred to as "the circus".

[Kahuna]

9. I worked for Macy's 34 years ago. It was union then. I wonder if it still is. nt

[pacalo]

13. I don't know, but it's a good question.

I googled for the information & from what I could see, it varies from location to location.

[Kahuna]

2. No! Not them!!! Save Macy's!

:patriot:

[Still Sensible]

3. At least they showed some responsibility and

didn't simply do this on the backs of their workforce. A 62% reduction in their dividend is indeed significant and something I don't recall seeing from any of the other companies doing layoffs recently.

In spite of the fact that shareholders have probably taken a significant hit in stock price already, Macy's still had the shareholders share in this hard cost-saving move.

[AndyA]

5. I wonder if Macy's is hurting due to their merchandise?

I hardly ever find anything at Macy's that I want to buy.

I was at Dillard's over the weekend, and they were having a huge sale. Some things were 30% off of prices that were already 50% off the regular price. And I'm talking Ralph Lauren Polo, and other top brands.

I asked how business had been, and the sales staff said it had been busy with the sales. I remarked that Dillard's surely wasn't making much (if any) profit on their sales, and was told that it doesn't seem much different this year than in years past, as far as mark downs go. They did seem to have a lot of inventory on sale, so maybe the damage was done when it didn't sell for regular price.

At any rate, they had a lot of bargains.

[4 t 4]

7. Who thinks it will

get worse before it gets better and for how long? Seriously just wonder what everyone thinks.

[Kahuna]

8. A lot of retailers will not make it. I hope Macy's will.

:scared:

[4 t 4]

10. I need to make some

decisions this month and I just not know if I should hold out for it getting any better or just give in and accept it's going to get worse. Thanks for your reply

[eilen]

11. I think they grew too fast

acquiring too many stores. They bought out Kaufman's up here in 2006, who bought out Sibley's, a local department store in 1992. I worked at Sibley's for a couple of years when I was out of high school-- in the downtown store. We hardly have any local department stores left and none left downtown.

When I was a young teen, I would go to Macy's shopping for school clothes while I visited my father who lived in Long Island. He would give me his credit card and I wasn't given a dollar amount but knowing how financially conservative he was I never spent more than $100. When he moved to Pittsburgh, I went to Kaufman's and discovered The Limited. About a year after that I had rejected mall stores and was shopping at the thrift store except for shoes and underwear.

[ReverendDeuce]

12. 7,000 is 4% of their workforce? That means their company has 175,000 employees?

MACY'S? The department store has 175,000 people on their payroll?

WTF do they DO besides run bland, picked-over mid-budget department stores?