On Thursday morning, Macy's Inc. announced that it will close 14 retail stores as it is investing more in technology.

It is expected that the 14 stores will close by early spring. These stores had annual sales totaling $130 million and the company hopes that some of those sales will be retained in nearby stores or through online/ mobile sales.

Due to the closure, 2,200 people will be laid off. These employees will be offered positions in nearby stores wherever possible or they will be given severance benefits. In addition, the company is opening two new locations, a Bloomingdale's in San Jose, California, and a Macy's in Los Angeles. These stores will replace an already existing store in Westfield Century City.

The company is laying off on an average two to three employees per store. Currently, each Macy's store has around 150 workers and the company's total employment stands at about 172,500.

Once the closure of stores and opening of new ones is completed, Macy's will operate about 830 Macy's and Bloomingdale's stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam.

"We continue to maintain a very strong nationwide network of stores through an ongoing process of selectively adding new locations while also trimming those that no longer meet our performance requirements", said Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren.