Macy’s Closing 5 Stores, None In New England

Macy’s Inc. will close five stores, costing 307 employees their jobs, officials announced last week. None of the stores are in New England.

In 2009, Macy’s closed 11 stores.

Terry J. Lundgren, Macy’s chairman, president, and CEO, called the decision “part of the ongoing annual process to selectively prune underperforming locations.” The closest store to Connecticut to be closed is in Burlington, N.J., Lundgren said.

Employees displaced by the closings may be offered positions in nearby stores, he said. Full-time and part-time workers laid off due to a store closing will be provided unspecified severance benefits and job-seeking assistance, according to Lundgren.

Macy’s had a dismal year in terms of both sales and net earnings. In December, the chain reported a net loss of $116 million for the first nine months of its fiscal year, far worse than the net loss of $30 million posted at the same point a year earlier. Sales for the first nine months were $15.6 billion, down 7.8 percent from the same point in 2008.

In February 2009, Macy’s announced that it planned to lay off 7,000 of its 180,000 workers.

Following this year’s store closings Macy’s will operate 849 stores — 809 Macy’s and 40 Bloomingdale’s.