Bonita Darnell said she was among those shocked to learn this week she will either have to hope for a transfer to another Macy's store or look for a new job come January.

"A lot of people sounded like they weren't expecting it at all," Darnell said Thursday. "They kind of dropped the bomb on us yesterday morning. People are worried. A lot of people, retail is all they know."

Store managers within the reconstruction areas said they had been aware of the possibility of imminent closures, but confirmation of those plans from developers came only within the past two weeks.

After working at Nordstrom for a year, Adam Morales is deciding whether to transfer to an Orem store located closer to his home or accept a severance package and start over. Store employees have been offered one week's pay for each year they have logged with the company, and will be paid for a minimum of two weeks, he said.

"It's a good job," said Morales. "The pay has been great and the people you work with - it's just a good environment."

But others have more limited options. Morales said one woman and her son already commute from Ogden to Salt Lake City, so tacking on the extra mileage and drive time to Orem would be difficult.

Many employees have spent the bulk of their careers at the store and are only years away from retirement. If they are not able to transfer - and not all 180 employees will, said Morales - they worry their futures could be in limbo.

"I know lots of people who have been in the company for 20 years, so it has been almost like a family for them," he said.

A spokeswoman for Nordstrom declined to say when executives were informed the final plans would mean closure and demolition of their store, except to say the company had signed a letter of intent recognizing that fact "sometime last week."

"Our goal all along had been to have the store remain open during construction," said Brooke White. "However, with this plan, that became an impossibility [due to demolition schedules]. It is a mixed blessing: we will have a vibrant new store, but in the meantime we could lose some of our most valuable people."

Across the street at Macy's, located in the old ZCMI Center, 125 employees were told every effort would be made to find them new jobs within the company. Macy's spokeswoman Kimberly Reason says corporate officials were not sure "until late last week" that they would have to close.

"We anticipate that the store will close sometime after the first of the year; we do not have a specific date at this time," she said.

Like Nordstrom, Macy's is offering its employees the opportunity to transfer to another store or accept a severance package. The mood of Macy's employees working on the floor Thursday was somber.

"I love the Juniors Department; I love working here," said Darnell, 19, who was hired in September. "It's very disappointing."

Vanessa Tauteoli, 21, who also works in the Juniors Department, will soon leave for her LDS mission in Spain, so Macy's closure will have little affect on her life, she said. But for some of her colleagues, it's a different story.

"We had a lady who could retire in two years," Tauteoli said. ''Now she's just like, 'Where am I going to go? What am I going to do? I hope I get my benefits that were promised to me.' ''

Employees at the smaller shops in the ZCMI Center, meanwhile, seemed somewhat less concerned.

Miriam Erickson, 18, who works at Tie It On, said she likely will transfer to the store's Trolley Square location, though she was unsure when that might happen. The announcement of the mall's closure hardly came as a shock, she said, "but how soon it was going to be was surprising."

At the nearby Inn at Temple Square, about 80 employees will be affected when it closes Oct. 28, ending a 16-year run. Management will assist them in finding jobs at other company holdings, such as downtown Salt Lake City's Joseph Smith Memorial Building and the Lion House.

"We announced the closure on Tuesday morning and had a job fair immediately after," said Neil Wilkinson, director of marketing for Temple Square Hospitality and owner of the Inn.

The Marriott and other area hotels and restaurants are cooperating in finding Inn employees' work, he said. That should be easier for Inn staffers due to the timing of the closure - on the eve of the holiday shopping season, when hospitality industry employment typically swells.

lrosetta@sltrib.com

LDS church's downtown plans

* The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Tuesday announced its plans to tear down Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls and some surrounding office towers.

* The replacement will be known as City Creek Center, with retail, condos and apartments and a representation of City Creek running through it.

* It is slated to open in 2011.