Macy's Store Planning Office to Close

Federated Department Stores announced that it will be centralizing and enlarging the store planning function in its Cincinnati corporate office by the end of March, and closing its New York office of about 50 people. The San Francisco office will be reduced to six people – retaining construction, design and planning functions. The Cincinnati office, which will add 25 people, will also have those functions, plus all of the pre-construction and purchasing operations.

Federated inherited its New York office – Macy's store planning department – when it purchased the bankrupt 87-store chain in 1994. According to a company statement, the centralization “reflects the fact that Federated has created a number of store designs reflective of best practices. These various designs will form the basis for store designs for all divisions, lessening the need for re-inventing the wheel each time.”