SAN JOSE — Macy’s and Kohl’s disclosed plans on Monday for company-wide furloughs, including their department stores, a move that seems certain to worsen the forbidding economic woes linked to the coronavirus.
Several hundred jobs potentially are being lost in the Bay Area alone, based on the number of department stores the retailers operate in the nine-county region.
Macy’s operates 14 department stores in the Bay Area, along with three furniture and mattress gallery stores. Bloomingdale’s, a unit of Macy’s, operates three Bay Area stores, including one at San Jose’s Westfield Valley Fair mall that had just opened in early March, staffed by 300 workers.
“We will be moving to the absolute minimum workforce needed to maintain basic operations,” Macy’s posted on its web site on Monday. “This means the majority of our colleagues will go on furlough beginning this week.”
Kohl’s operates 20 stores in the Bay Area, according to the retailer’s web site.
“Given that Kohl’s will be extending the duration of our store closures until further notice, Kohl’s will temporarily furlough store and store distribution center associates, as well as some corporate office associates whose work has been significantly reduced by the store closures,” Kohl’s stated in a filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
