Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Macy's to close downtown Honolulu store
POSTED: 05:00 a.m. HST, Jan 03, 2013
LAST UPDATED: 05:34 p.m. HST, Jan 03, 2013
Macy’s downtown Honolulu store, long rumored to be on the chopping block, will close in early spring as part of what the company calls “normal-course adjustments to its portfolio.”
Cincinnati-based Macy’s Inc. announced the closure of the 80,000-square foot 1032 Fort Street Mall store this morning along with the shuttering of four other Macy’s stores — in Pasadena, Calif.; Belmont, Mass.; St. Paul, Minn.; and Houston; as well as a Bloomingdale’s in Las Vegas.
The 91 employees at the Honolulu store, which opened in 1850 as Hackfeld’s Dry Goods, will be offered positions in nearby stores where possible and those laid off will be offered severance benefits.
A final clearance sale will begin on Monday and run for between seven and 11 weeks.
The Honolulu closure will leave 17 Macy’s stores in Hawaii, including eight on Oahu, four on Hawaii island, three on Maui and two on Kauai. No other Macy’s stores in the state are affected.
“We remain committed to operating a successful and growing stores business as part of our company’s Omnichannel strategy for serving customers wherever, whenever and however they prefer to shop,” said Karen Hoguet, chief financial officer of Macy’s Inc. “This leads us to open new stores where we see the opportunity to fill gaps in important markets, as well as to make the tough decision to selectively close underperforming stores that no longer meet our performance requirements or where leases are not being renewed.”
The downtown Macy’s store previously was owned by Liberty House, the state’s oldest and largest department store chain that was sold to Federated Department Stores Inc. in 2001 after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Federated consolidated Liberty House into its Macy’s West division and, in 2007, Federated changed its corporate name to Macy’s Inc.
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A. The H-1/H-2 merge is the main cause of the traffic congestion both during the morning and afternoon rush hours. All traffic feeds into it, from Kapolei, Nanakuli, Waianae, Ewa, Kunia, Makakilo, Waipahu, etc., from West Oahu on the H-1. From the North, the H-2 brings down cars from Laie, Wahiawa, Mililani, Waipio-Gentry, Kahuku, Haleiwa, tc. Now also, some from Pearl City and Aiea themselves get on the H-1 right at that merge and congregate in downtown State and City Civil Service positions (lol, most of them work for the government).
B. The lane narrowing on the H-1 near Ward Avenue and the Punahou Street off ramp area, in my opinion, was a great idea. Most people and i say maybe 95% of those that transport themselves with cars, do so, because the car is the extension of the home itself. I mean why go on public transport, when the happiness of the car is there.
C. Now the Windward side: That is another animal itself. They feed into downtown via the Pali Highway and the Likelike (lee kay lee kay and not like like) Highway, and some even take the scenic route via the H-3, even though one still has to fight Red Hill over H-201.
D. They neva call Honolulu the sheltered harbor for nothing. Besides, people like to be with people, so whoever is displaying their feelings about TheRail or TheTrain or DaTrain or DaRail, needs to consider that TheBus merely caters to those on the lower end of the Totem Pole and mind u only Joe Biden rides Public Transit to and fro. One of these days, we need to see Kirk Caldwell and Neil Abercrombie take TheBus on surprise without notice, to make a point to the public thatt PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IS THE WAY TO GO. Otherwise all we did was give $2.5 billion dollars to Italy and Ansaldo.
‘Soul Sessions’ feat. RootHub
