Macy's to open first outlet store in Miami

By

Rebecca Taras

Published
Jun 28, 2017

Despite a bigger-than-expected fall in quarterly profit and sales, Macy’s continues its aggressive outlet store expansion with a new location in Miami that is slated to open this summer inside Macy’s at The Falls.

There are currently over 40 Macy’s Backstage stores across the United States—the inaugural Miami location is the fourth outlet store in Florida. Other locations include Boynton Beach, Altamonte Springs and Fort Myers. Two new stores in the Midwest (Michigan and Wisconsin) just opened last week and another summer opening scheduled for July, 8—also in Michigan.
 
Backstage discount stores sell excess and off-season inventory at steep discounts, much like competitors Nordstrom Rack and TJX Companies, Inc. Macy’s strategy of opening its discount Backstage chain within its existing department stores is hoped to drive traffic to the regular Macy’s, but analysts beg to differ.  Experts feel the plan only confuses consumers and could actually wind up adversely affecting Macy’s in the long run.

While the company is looking to monetize its real estate assets and CEO Jeff Gennette is planning for 40 percent of store merchandise to be exclusive to Macy's by 2020 to improve its financial situation, ​Chief Financial Officer Karen Hoguet warned that Macy's Inc margins could end the year as much as 80 basis points lower than in 2016 due to growing competition from online retailers like Amazon.