Macy's Closing 2 Pittsburgh-Area Stores

Thursday, January 08, 2009 By
Teresa F. Lindeman,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Department store operator Macy's Inc. will close two Pittsburgh-area locations as part of a move to cull 11 underperforming stores around the country.

A location in Natrona Heights Plaza that opened in 1956 and has been one of the company's smallest stores will be shuttered. In addition, a furniture and clearance center that has been operated at Century III Mall for the past several years will be closed, although the Macy's department store there will remain open.
The 73,000-square-foot Natrona Heights store employed 124 people, while the 83,000-square-foot West Mifflin furniture and clearance site had just three workers, according to the announcement from the Cincinnati-based retailer.

Final clearance sales are scheduled to begin within the next week. Affected employees may be considered for positions at other Macy's stores.

In addition to the Pittsburgh-area stores, Macy's plans to close locations in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri and Tennessee.

In a separate release, Macy's reported sales at established stores fell 4 percent in December and a total of 7.5 percent for the combined November-December holiday period. The retailer's total sales for the five weeks ended Jan. 3 fell 4.7 percent to $4.397 billion.