Macy’s Considers Options For Black Friday Amid Pandemic

As it starts to consider the holiday season in the age of social distancing, Macy’s Chairman and CEO Jeff Gennette noted on a recent call with analysts that the retailer is mulling all of its available options for Black Friday.

“Everything is on the table right now,” Gennette said. “We’re working with our merchant and our marketing teams on options within the marketing calendar to reduce pressure points on big volume days, and we’re learning a lot from the reopening of our stores. Most of our stores will not have any issues. But our biggest magnet stores during the Black Friday timeframe is the piece that we’re looking at.”

Gennette said the company believes consumers will engage with Black Friday “earlier and earlier in the calendar.” The executive also noted that Macy’s is closely examining its store hours, and that curbside pickup will be its “big secret weapon” for the holiday season. But he added that if customers do enter its stores, “we’re going to be able to protect even the most nervous customers with crowds and their concerns about that.”

The news comes as Macy’s recognized a $3.1 billion non-cash, pre-tax goodwill charge, as its long-term forecast and market gap moved, primarily because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a Wednesday (July 1) announcement.

The retailer also recognized a long-lived asset impairment charge of $80 million, per its Q1 financial results. Macy’s said it had net sales of a little over $3 billion and $2.03 in adjusted diluted loss per share.

In May, Macy’s unveiled the offering of $1.1 billion in senior secured notes set for a 2025 maturity to help repay borrowings with its existing $1.5 billion credit facility. The retailer said a collection of real estate assets, with the inclusion of three iconic places, would secure the notes, per a statement on May 26.