RE:RE:Warren Buffett once said find an iconic company After a disappointing holiday shopping season, the nation's largest department stores and some of the shoppers who still depend on them are set for an unhappy new year.
Macy's, Kohl's and other department stores are hurting as more people shop online, visit lower-priced stores or spend more of their money on smartphones and other gadgets. The future of department stores seems bleak as they close locations — and thus give shoppers less options at the mall and more reason to just stay home and shop online.
"I don't think there are any happy endings," said Mark Cohen, a retail studies professor at New York's Columbia Business School and a former Sears Canada CEO.
Macy's said it will close 63 of its 730 stores this year and expects to cut more than 10,000 jobs as it seeks to reduce costs. Sales at established stores fell 2.1 per cent in November and December, the New York-based retailer said late Wednesday. Kohl's also reported a 2.1 per cent sales drop at established stores in the last two months of 2016.
Sears, which has lost money for years amid falling revenue, said it plans to shut 150 locations, including 109 of its Kmart stores. Among those closing is Kmart's first store, the Detroit Free Press reported, which opened in 1962 in Garden City, Michigan. And Sears is also set to part with another part of its history: It reached a deal to sell its famous Craftsman tools brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc., but will continue to sell its products in its stores. Sears first took control of the Craftsman name 90 years ago.