Retail woes widen as Macy’s and Rite Aid reveal Bay Area job cuts

Macy’s has revealed that the company’s workers in the Bay Area and California face the loss of several hundred jobs due to the iconic retailer’s decision to close 66 stores nationwide and several in this state.

Separately, Rite Aid has disclosed it will shut the doors of one of its San Jose stores, a move that will eliminate more than a dozen jobs in that city.

The disclosures suggest that the economic woes arising from competition from online e-commerce platforms — and in some cases, crime and theft problems — have yet to run their course for the besieged retail sector.

All told, Macy’s has decided to eliminate 470 jobs in California, including layoffs totaling 147 positions in the Bay Area, according to several WARN notices the department store chain sent to the state Employment Development Department.

The Rite Aid store that is closing in San Jose is at 6091 Meridian Avenue, a WARN notice disclosed.

Macy’s had previously announced its decision to close 66 stores nationwide, including six in California, of which two were in the Bay Area cities of Newark and Corte Madera.

The other Macy’s stores that were being closed in California are located in Los Angeles, the Orange County City of Westminster and the Sacramento County cities of Sacramento and Citrus Heights.

Macy’s detailed job cuts at six stores in California, according to the EDD WARN notice. Here is what is known at this point:

— 94 job cuts in Newark at its Newpark mall department store.

— 53 layoffs at its Corte Madera store.

— 98 job cuts in Los Angeles.

— 93 layoffs in Westminster.

— 71 in Sacramento.

— 61 in Citrus Heights.

“Closing any store is never easy,” Macy’s CEO Tony Spring said in a blog post a few days ago in connection with the shutdown plans.

Rite Aid told the state EDD that it plans to eliminate 16 jobs when it permanently closes a store on Meridian Avenue in south San Jose.

The drug store and pharmacy retailer said the store would permanently close by Feb. 26, which is the planned date for the layoffs in San Jose.

“Associates (who are on the layoff list) may be transferred to other stores or offered other roles,” Nichole Huber, a Rite Aid human resources official, wrote in the WARN letter to the EDD.

Some of the employees in the Rite Aid store on Meridian Avenue are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 5. If comparable positions aren’t available, the workers might be fully separated from employment with Rite Aid.

All six of the Macy’s stores were scheduled to close their doors on March 18, the WARN letters stated.

“We are closing underproductive Macy’s stores to allow us to focus our resources and prioritize investments in our go-forward stores, where customers are already responding positively to better product offerings and elevated service,” Spring stated in the blog post.