Macy's Store Closings

This past week major retailer, Macy's announced the closing of 35 to 40 underperforming stores. These stores are scheduled to be closed in the beginning of 2016. Macy's corporate headquarters are located in both Cincinnati and New York. Macy's released a press release on September 8th with all the details. The press release stated the closing of these stores will represent about 1 percent of the total Macy's, Inc. sales. "These stores also make up more than 5 percent  of Macy's locations. Over the past five years, Macy's has closed 52 stores and opened 12 new ones." (Isidore, 2015) The cause for many of these major store closing is because shoppers are moving toward Amazon or online shopping. Macy's has also seen a drop in sales in the past few quarters, which is another reason why the retailer giant is closing stores.

I looked into Macy's Facebook and Twitter accounts to see if they had posted any information about their store closings on either of these outlets. On both Facebook and Twitter, they did not post anything. On both social media sites, they continued to post their normal content, completely ignoring the fact that they were closing stores. Macy's is already losing customers with these store closings, but they should try to keep customers by informing them personally through these channels.

I think Macy's should have addressed the fact that they were closing stores on their social media sites. By addressing this on social media they would have given their customers information about these store closings, and the locations that are expected to close. Instead they sent out a press release to the media, and their customer had to find out via the internet or the daily news. As an individual that does shop at Macy's, I feel that they should have informed their customers via social media, so they would hear it from the company first. It will be interesting to see how customers react to these store closings and to see if Macy's has an increase or decrease in sales.

Isidore, C. (n.d.). In CNN Money. Retrieved September 9, 2015, from http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/09/news/companies/macys-store-closings/

Weekend Away From Ada

This past week, I had the opportunity to go home and visit with the family, but I didn't actually go home. My family was camping about a hour north from our house, so my 4 hour drive home turned into 5. I finally arrived to Stanwood, MI on Saturday afternoon and spent the majority of the day playing corn hole and catching up with my family. On Sunday, we had all planned to go tubing down the Muskegon River. We had a group of about 30 people. All our tubes were tied together with a variety of ropes as we just sat and floated down the river. The trip took approximately 4 hours to complete and by the end everyone was hot and tired. The weather for this trip was perfect, as it was sunny with a nice breeze, so you didn't feel like you were really getting that much sun. Fortunate enough for me, I didn't burn much, but others were not as lucky. After our long day my family, aunt, uncle and cousins all headed back to the campground where we spent the night sitting by the fire and catching up, as we knew it was the last night of summer. Monday morning, I got up early and headed home with the dogs, so I could get some work down. Being about 10 miles off the highway next to a river meant very poor cell phone service and wifi connection.

Monday around 2 p.m., I left home and made my way back to school. I had planned a stop to
Michigan State to visit my brother who is a freshman there. After about an hour of driving, I merged onto a different highway and got off at the Michigan State University exit. I spent about 2 and a half hours with my brother. During that time I took him to the grocery store, to get some snack food, and then we spent the rest of the time catching up. I also had the opportunity to visit one of Michigan State's various dining halls, and I must say that it ranks higher than Ohio Northern. After the down pour ended, I made a run for my car and continued my trip back to school. After a large amount of traffic and construction, I finally made it back to Ada around 9 p.m.

I enjoyed  my time home this weekend, even though it did go fast. We had perfect weather throughout the weekend, with no rain. I was able to catch up with family that I don't see often. The only downfall to this weekend was that I drove about 9 hours in total, but in the end all the driving was worth it.

Football and Concussions

As football season is upon us, the discussions are now beginning about concussions and whether they can cause brain trauma. Besides the fact that football is starting, there is also a movie coming out called, "Concussion with the lead played by Will Smith. This movie is scheduled to come out in December and focus on the issue of head trauma in football." (Bradley, 2015)  Below is the official movie trailer:

This movie is definitely going to stir up conversation on the concussion topic within the National Football League (NFL). Many players within the NFL have come out and said that they do not want their children playing football because of the risk of concussions and potential brain damage. We have also seen former NFL players commit suicide due to these brain injuries. The NFL has had to deal a lot with this issue, but with this movie coming out they are going to need to be prepared to address the issue and maybe even answer some tough questions. 

"In 2013 the NFL announced it would pay $765 million to settle claims brought by thousands of former players saying the NFL concealed a link between football and brain trauma." (Bradley, 2015) With this movie coming out many more individuals are going to be aware of concussions and the NFL is going to need to be prepared. 

 I grew up in a family that loved watching and playing sports. Every Saturday was spent downstairs watching the Michigan State Spartans with my dad and brother. My cousins and brother all played football, so almost every Friday night was spent at a high school football game. The discussion of concussions and brain trauma resonates close to home, as I am sure it does with many other families. 

Throughout the week we have been discussing crisis communication and real-time media. Once this movie comes out the NFL will be dealing with crisis communication, if they aren't already. They know the movie comes out in December, so they have a little over 3 months to prepare for this. The smart thing to do would be to begin making statements about the issue of concussions because if they don't then the NFL is just going to look worse than they already do. The NFL is still dealing with the Tom Brady issue and the deflating of the balls, and they don't need to keep drawing more attention to themselves. This movie will bring to light the dangers of playing football and getting concussions, but the NFL should also be prepared to make a comment.

Bradley, D. (2015, August 31). In PR Week. Retrieved September 4, 2015, from http://www.prweek.com/article/1362179/nfl-stop-concussion-knocking