Bloomingdale's goes to dot-com Boot Hill

NEWS New York department store Bloomingdale's is to shut its online store, while retail rival Macy's will scale back its internet operations, amid falling sales and profit. Federated Department Stores, the holding company behind both stores, said the move is designed to stem its decline in profits after earnings fell 38 per cent in the third quarter.
While Macy's will continue to sell online, it will slash its clothing range to focus on gifts and jewellery. Bloomingdale's will stop all online sales by February 2002. Federated Stores said it expected 100 job cuts and a one off charge of $50m to $60m in the fiscal fourth quarter as a result of the closure and cutbacks.