Shoppers holding Macy’s gift cards or loyalty rewards face a shrinking window to use them. The retailer disclosed plans to close approximately 150 locations over three years, recording a $950 million non-cash impairment charge tied directly to those stores. With the closure timeline now well past its midpoint, customers who have not yet checked whether their local store is on the list risk losing convenient access to redeem balances they already own.
Why 150 Macy’s closures put gift cards and rewards at risk
The practical problem is straightforward. When a store closes, the physical counter where a shopper can browse, try on clothes, and hand over a gift card disappears. Macy’s gift cards generally remain valid online, but many holders, especially those who received cards as gifts, treat them as in-store currency. A closed location removes the most familiar redemption path and, for some customers, removes the motivation to spend the balance at all.
The same logic applies to Star Rewards points and other loyalty credits. Shoppers who earned rewards through purchases at a specific store may not realize those points can still be applied at macys.com or a surviving location. The risk is not that the rewards expire overnight but that confusion and inconvenience cause balances to go unused, effectively turning them into lost value for the consumer and a quiet financial gain for the company.
A reasonable expectation is that gift-card redemptions and loyalty point usage will spike in the weeks before each announced closure, even as foot traffic at those locations declines overall. Shoppers tend to act on “use it or lose it” urgency once a closing date becomes real. That pattern would mirror behavior seen at other major retail wind-downs, where liquidation sales and card-redemption rushes overlap in the final 90 days.
SEC filings and earnings results behind the store cuts
Macy’s disclosed the closure plan in a regulatory filing with the SEC on February 27, 2024. That Form 8-K detailed the approximately $950 million non-cash asset impairment charge and stated it was primarily related to the roughly 150 locations slated for closure. The company simultaneously issued a press release framing the strategy as part of what it called “A Bold New Chapter,” aimed at repositioning the business and concentrating investment on stronger-performing stores and its luxury brands.
Reporting by the Washington Post said the closures reflect a broader bet on luxury, with the company channeling resources toward its Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury banners while trimming underperforming Macy’s nameplate stores. That shift helps explain why the company chose to absorb such a large impairment charge in a single period rather than draw out the financial hit.
The strategy appears to be producing results on the remaining store base. Macy’s reported that its fourth-quarter and full fiscal year 2025 results exceeded guidance, and the company returned to annual comparable sales growth, according to its most recent earnings release. In other words, the surviving stores are performing better as a group, which reinforces the company’s rationale for shedding weaker locations rather than propping them up.
In its investor communications on its corporate site, Macy’s has emphasized that capital will be redirected toward modernizing higher-traffic locations, improving digital capabilities and expanding luxury formats. That context matters for gift card and rewards holders: the company is not exiting retail but reshaping where and how it serves customers, which in turn reshapes where those balances can be conveniently used.
What shoppers still do not know about specific closures
For many customers, the most important detail is the one that remains least clear: whether their neighborhood store is among the roughly 150 on the chopping block and, if so, when it will actually close. While Macy’s has named some locations and markets, the full, time-stamped list of closures over the multi-year period is not always easy to find in one place. Announcements tend to roll out in waves, often tied to local news releases or lease-expiration timelines.
That piecemeal communication can leave shoppers in limbo. A store may be rumored to be closing, or employees may indicate that a decision is pending, but without a firm date customers are unsure how quickly they need to act on outstanding gift cards and rewards. In some cases, a location may begin winding down departments or shrinking inventory months before an official closing, reducing the selection available to anyone trying to use up a balance.
There is also uncertainty around how aggressively Macy’s will steer customers to alternative channels. Some closing stores post signage reminding shoppers that cards and rewards remain valid online or at other locations, but the consistency of those messages varies. Customers who shop infrequently, or who received a gift card without following the company’s emails or app notifications, may never see the guidance at all.
Consumer advocates typically urge shoppers in this situation to take a few simple steps. First, verify whether your local store has been named in a closure announcement and, if it has, note the final operating date. Second, check the remaining balance on any gift cards or rewards, either online or at the register, and make a plan to redeem them before the last day if you prefer in-person shopping. Finally, if an in-store visit is inconvenient or the selection has thinned out, consider shifting the redemption online rather than letting the value linger unused.
The underlying message of Macy’s restructuring is that the brand is narrowing its physical footprint while leaning more heavily on e-commerce and luxury formats. For shoppers, that means the safest course is to treat gift cards and loyalty points as funds to be spent sooner rather than later, especially in markets where the store map is changing fastest. The balances are still valid, but the easiest places to use them may not be there much longer.
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