CLEARANCE SALE COMING—The Macy’s in the Simi Valley Town Center is slated to be closed in the near future. It’s one of five stores nationwide that the retail giant is shutting as part of the company’s latest restructuring. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
The Simi Valley Town Center will soon be losing its biggest retail store due to another round of downsizing by Macy’s.
The struggling department store giant is closing its Simi store and four other locations across the country as part of a recent restructuring. It plans to lay off 2,350 employees, with cuts being made in both its corporate office and retail stores, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
The local department store is expected to close by the end of March.
“As we prepare to deploy a new strategy to meet the needs of an ever-changing consumer and marketplace, we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 3.5% to become a more streamlined company,” the company said in a Jan. 26 statement.
The only other California location that’s set to close is in San Leandro, a town in the San Francisco Bay Area. The other three are in Arlington, Virginia; Lihue, Hawaii; and Tallahassee, Florida.
Since 2015, Macy’s has shuttered nearly 300 stores across the country. As of January 2023, the retailer employed 94,570 full- and part-time employees, excluding seasonal hires, according to the New York Post.
In a statement this month, Macy’s said it had rejected a recent $5.8 billion proposal to go private from Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management.
Instead, the retailer is pursuing a small-format store expansion. In 2023, Macy’s opened four such locations in off-mall settings and aims to have a total of 45 such locations operating across the U.S. by 2025, the company said.
The Simi Valley Town Center, which opened in October 2005 just north of the 118 Freeway, was originally anchored by two department stores: Macy’s on the west end, Robinsons-May on the east end. In 2006, the Robinsons-May store was converted into a Macy’s men’s store.
In 2017, Macy’s closed the men’s store, consolidating its men’s, women’s and home goods departments under one roof on the mall’s west side.
Each time the retailer announced closures around the country, there was a collective sigh of relief from local officials and residents when the Simi Valley Macy’s was not on the list.
Many local residents have fond memories of shopping at Macy’s.
“I’m sad to see Macy’s in Simi closing its doors, especially thinking about the job losses,” said Kathi Van Etten, president/ CEO of the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce. “Macy’s has been one of Simi Valley’s nicer places to shop, so it will be missed,”
Several shoppers came out to the store on Mon., Jan. 22 to check out the beginning of closing sales.
Diana Jones of Simi Valley said she has shopped at the Simi store since it opened at the mall almost 20 years ago.
“It was a comforting place to go when you needed a new outfit or a gift. I can’t imagine it not being there,” said Jones, who plans to keep shopping at Macy’s stores in Thousand Oaks, Ventura and Woodland Hills.
After last week’s announcement, residents went online to discuss the closure and Simi Valley Town Center’s future without its main anchor store. On Nextdoor, some speculated about the decline of large department stores due to the dominance of online shopping retailers.
“Unfortunately losing these stores and the jobs they provided are the collateral damage of the Amazon world we live in,” said one person in a comment.
Some attributed the closure of the Simi store to incidents of shoplifting and recent smash-and-grab robberies.
Criticism also emerged regarding the lack of support Simi residents show local businesses, including the mall, which has lost many of its retail stores over the years. Some said that the Simi Valley Macy’s had perennially struggled, claiming its inventory was limited compared to other stores.
“Considering how many stores Macy’s has closed in the last decade, it’s surprising ours lasted as long as it did,” said another person online.
Michelle Benson, a frequent visitor, praised Macy’s employees for their pleasant and helpful demeanor and expressed hope that they can all find new jobs.
Despite Macy’s decision to close its store, city officials remain optimistic about the mall’s future.
Linda Swan, Simi Valley’s assistant city manager, revealed last week that the town center is actively considering offers from potential buyers. The Festival Companies currently owns the mall.
“I’m not able to disclose the names at this time, but I’m really looking forward to moving ahead and forging a new partnership,” Swan said during a Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee meeting.
At the council’s Jan. 8 meeting, Mayor Fred Thomas also shared details about his recent meeting with potential mall buyers.
“They actually brought some news that I thought was encouraging. I’m anxiously awaiting more feedback from them in the future,” Thomas said.
Speaking with the Acorn this week, former Simi Valley Councilmember Glen Becerra said the anticipated changes coming to the mall will benefit the entire community.
“The city is going to have an opportunity to reimagine the mall portion of the Town Center to bring it up to what a modern retail shopping experience should be,” said Becerra who has been consulting with the potential partners in the mall redevelopment project and was on the council in the early 2000s when the original town center development was approved.
This is not the first time there’s been talk of reimagining the mall.
In 2018, the owners explored the idea of tearing down the vacant 140,000-square-foot Macy’s and 30,000 square feet of mostly empty storefronts on the east end of the shopping center to build a five-story, multifamily apartment complex. The plan was submitted to the city but withdrawn shortly thereafter.
Sylvie Belmond contributed to this story.