Macy’s Shakes up Leadership, Nixes COO Role

Apparently in response to the pandemic’s acceleration of several shifts in the retail industry — including the rise of e-commerce and off-price and the downfall of malls — Macy’s appears to be stepping on the gas when it comes to its own changes.

The department store said as much last week when it announced tweaks to its Polaris turnaround strategy, though Monday’s executive shakeup revealed some specifics. The appointment of DiGiovanna, for example, suggests more will be done with its real estate, according to Jan Rogers Kniffen, CEO of J.Rogers Kniffen Worldwide CEO, who knows him personally.

“He’s a younger guy and he’ll be more aggressive in getting things done with the real estate, I believe,” Kniffen said by phone. “And I don’t think that tells us anything different in their strategy. You know Macy’s has been divesting real estate since before COVID, and they’ll continue to divest real estate post COVID. But it’s not just Macy’s, it’s in general. There’s too much retail square footage. There’s too many malls, there’s too many stores, the stores are too big. That’s a general statement. This applies to Macy’s, but it applies to all of them.”