UPDATE: The Department of Labor has updated their Work Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) database this morning to reflect that the Macy’s locations in Annapolis and Columbia would be undergoing a “mass layoff” as opposed to a “plant closure”. The Macy’s announcement last week indicated that they were making cuts to 3900 corporate and management roles which would realize a savings of $630M per year for the department store. We have filed a request with the DLLR for the original WARN filing.
UPDATE: Jacqueline King, the Director of Media Relations for Macy’s in Chicago returned our email saying that “Macy’s Annapolis and Macy’s Columbia stores will remain open to serve our customers” and said that further information is available in an announcement from last week. However, the announcement did not address the reported closures and we have asked Ms. King to explain why they filed the notice with the state? So far, she has not returned our e-mail. We will update this as more information becomes available.
In a notice to the State’s Department of Labor last week, Macy’s indicated that it intends to shutter the store located in the Annapolis Mall along with the one in the Columbia Mall.
The closure of the store in Annapolis will result in the loss of more than 100 employees. The effective date for the layoff is June 30, 2020.
Mall retailers were hit particularly hard with the COVID-19 pandemic when Governor Hogan ordered all malls close very early in the State’s response. Retail in general has been struggling with combating online sales for several years as the buying habits of today’s consumer have changed.
There is no word yet if there will be a liquidation sale as there are other Macy’s stores that appear to be remaining open at the Bowie Town Center, the Marley Station Mall in Glen Burnie, and three other stores in Baltimore.
Management at Westfield Annapolis, owner of the mall could not be reached for comment, and calls to Macy’s were referred to the corporate office which has not returned our call.
Recently, Sears and Nordstrom have closed at the Annapolis mall leaving JC Penney as the remaining anchor store. JC Penney filed for bankruptcy on May 15, 2020 and the Annapolis location was not among the initial stores being closed.
