The company is postponing or canceling a number of new projects for next year to conserve cash, and is predicting same-store sales in the fourth quarter of 2008 to decline anywhere from 1% to 6%, particularly given a calendar shift and strong November prior-year comparison.
"Like all Holiday seasons I can remember, it will be a nail-biter," said Karen Hoguet, CFO. "We won't be able to predict the holiday season accurately until we're through it at the end of December."
However, store closings will not be out of the normal range in 2009.
"We've always been aggressive at looking at our store basis," Hoguet said. "We do expect to close some stores, but we do not expect anything unusual."
For the quarter, sales were $5.5 billion, down 7.0% from the same quarter last year. Same-store sales declined 6%. The company posted a loss of $44 million, compared with earnings of $33 million last year. Sales in the quarter were strongest in the Northeast and Texas, with New York City the strongest individual market. But even New York softened somewhat in the second half of the quarter, Hoguet said.
Macy's operates more than 850 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the names of Macy's and Bloomingdale's.
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