Dates set for store closeouts

Robinsons-May at South Coast Plaza and Macy’s Women’s Store at Fashion Island begin final sales Jan. 29, purchaser announces.The beginning of the end for Newport-Mesa’s Robinsons-May stores is set for Jan. 29. That is the day when clearance sales leading to the end of the Robinsons-May name are set to begin.

Robinsons-May department stores are currently in business at Newport-Mesa’s two biggest shopping centers, South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island. However, the entire Robinsons-May brand is set to be phased out this year.

In 2005, Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores Inc., which owns the Macy’s department store brand, purchased St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co.

May owned the Robinsons-May brand, and Federated executives have chosen to convert many Robinson’s-May stores into Macy’s stores.

Federated Department Stores has published a list, current as of Monday, that states when clearance sales are scheduled to begin. The list includes the Robinsons-May store at South Coast Plaza and the Macy’s Women’s Store at Fashion Island. For the Fashion Island store, the list includes a note indicating that sales are scheduled to be held at the Robinsons-May store in that shopping center. At both shopping centers, Jan. 29 is given as the date when clearance sales are set to begin.

Federated spokesman Jim Sluzewski said Friday that he had no other information on the closeout sales and could not say when the Robinsons-May stores are expected to close.

South Coast Plaza’s Robinsons-May store is set to be transformed into a Bloomingdale’s department store after the Robinsons-May name is gone. South Coast Plaza spokeswoman Debra Gunn Downing said Friday that she had no additional information about that store’s future.

Officials at the Newport Beach-based Irvine Co., which owns Fashion Island, have said that the Robinsons-May store at that shopping center is expected to be converted into a Macy’s, while the Macy’s Women’s Store at Fashion Island is on tap to be sold.

Sluzewski and Irvine Co. spokesman Bill Rams said Friday it is not yet known what kind of store will replace the Macy’s Women’s Store.