KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette The Macy’s store at the Lycoming Mall in Muncy will close in the coming months. Macy’s announced Wednesday the closing of 68 Macy’s, out of total of 730 stores. The 120,000-square-foot Macy’s at the Lycoming Mall employs 61 people and opened in 1995.

The Lycoming Mall Macy’s is among 68 of the retail company’s store outlets set to close its doors.

The company announced this week through a press release that the closures are a means of streamlining its store portfolio, intensifying cost efficiency efforts and executing real estate strategy.

Macy’s officials at the Pennsdale-area store had no comment.

The local Macy’s opened in 1995 and employs 61 associates.

Macy’s officials noted the closures, which represent 15 percent of its store base, are set for early this year.

The 68 stores are part of 100 closures the company announced last summer.

Final clearance sales at stores will begin Monday.

The shuttering of Macy’s stores comes at a time when a number of the nation’s big retailers are planning to close hundreds of their outlets as consumers are increasingly turning to online shopping.

Sears and Kmart announced plans to close a total of 150 stores.

Among the Sears stores shutting doors is the Selinsgrove site at the Susquehanna Valley Mall.

Other major retailers that have announced mass store closures include CVS, American Eagle, Finish Line and Walmart.

In addition to the Lycoming Mall store, Macy’s is closing stores at five other Pennsylvania sites: Bensalem, Hermitage, Monaca, Plymouth Meeting and Washington.

The Macy’s closures are estimated to generate annual savings of about $550 million beginning this year and enable the company to invest an additional $250 million in growing the digital business and other store-related growth strategies, according to officials.

“Over the past year, we have been focused and disciplined about making strategic decisions to position us to gain market share and return to growth over time,” said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman and CEO of Macy’s Inc. “While we are pleased with the strong performance of our highly developed online business, as well as the progress we have made on selling and visual presentation programs and expense reduction initiatives in 2016, we continue to experience declining traffic in our stores where the majority of our business is still transacted.”