Macy’s at Sunrise Mall listed among 66 stores to close nationally

By Sara Beth Williams–
Macy’s at Sunrise Mall has officially been listed among 66 impending store closures nationwide.

The Citrus Heights location is one of nine locations in California listed in a Jan. 9 press release, slated to close before spring. Other notable California locations closing include Macy’s stores in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Mateo, and Walnut Creek.

The closure list includes a note stating that the Sunrise Mall closure includes “includes two boxes within the same location and therefore is counted as one location.”

According to Axios, clearance sales will begin in January and will run for approximately eight to 12 weeks for full-line and small-format stores. Clearance sales will begin in February and will run for approximately six weeks for furniture galleries and free-standing Backstage stores.

Prior to the Jan. 9 announcement, unconfirmed rumors of the imminent closure of Macy’s circulated online and in-store, with one employee in mid-December telling The Sentinel that all employees were told the store would close this spring, and that employees had been “encouraged” to transfer elsewhere. The Sentinel could not confirm an official closure date.

When asked about the possibility of Macy’s at Sunrise Mall closing, Sunrise Mall General Manager James Anderson Jr. told The Sentinel in a Jan. 7 email, “This type of information is not something we share publicly.” Sunrise MarketPlace Executive Director Kathilynn Carpenter said in December the store’s lease expires at the end of 2026.

In an email statement to The Sentinel in December, Macy’s Inc. Senior Director of External Communications Orlando Veras confirmed that the company anticipated closing over 60 locations “after the holidays.” No specific closure date was provided at the time.

Initially, the company announced in a third quarter financial earnings call in December that it planned to close 65 stores, an increase from the 50 locations it previously announced it would shutter by the end of the fiscal year.

The closures are part of a plan to eliminate roughly 150 “underperforming” stores over the next three years. The retail giant hopes the “Bold New Chapter strategy” will help “return the company to sustainable, profitable sales growth,” according to the press release.

Macy’s at Sunrise Mall has experienced several hardships in the last year, with multiple instances of reported retail theft and, most recently, water damage occurring inside Macy’s Men’s in mid-December due to a roof leak.

According to Citrus Heights Historical Society President Larry Fritz, the Sunrise Mall opened in 1972, and Macy’s Women’s joined the over 100 tenants after Liberty House closed in the 1980s. Later, after Weinstock’s department store chain closed at Sunrise Mall, Macy’s Men’s moved from its original location across the street to where it is currently located today.

The closure of Macy’s will leave JCPenney as the last remaining major anchor store at Sunrise Mall.