These stores closed at Boise Towne Square. Others are opening. Plus: Express’s fate
Clothing retailer Express says it plans to close 31 stores nationwide by the end of January, but employees at the company’s Boise store say it will stay open.
Two employees at the store at the Boise Towne Square, who declined to identify themselves, said Express was targeting stores that aren’t performing well. They said the Boise store has strong sales.
“Yes, they do well,” Jack Yejekwe, the mall’s general manager, said in a phone interview.
The company, which operates more than 600 stores and employs 18,000 people, specializes in clothing for young adults. Express said it will close an additional 35 stores by the end of January 2021 and a total of 100 stores by 2022.
The closings, Express said in a filing last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will cost the company an estimated $90 million by 2022. Those expenses will be offset by the elimination of costs from the closed stores. Express believes it can increase sales by $15 million annually at the stores that remain open and through increased online sales.
“My expectation is that we will return to a mid-single-digit operating margin through a combination of low-single-digit comp sales growth, margin expansion and cost reductions,” Express CEO Tim Baxter said in a statement. “This will of course take some time, but we have a clear path.”
A company spokesperson did not return a request for comment.
Mall store closings, openings
Changes are coming to Boise Towne Square’s store lineup, as they often do before and after the holidays.
Master Cuts and the I and I clothing store closed at the end of December.
Shoe Show opened late last year on the upper floor in the space formerly occupied by Payless Shoe Source. Its parent company also operates Shoe Department Encore, which also has a store on the second level.
Lovesace Designed for Life Furniture Co. also opened last year, along with Pristine Image, a barber shop, and Sbarro, which sells New York-style pizza. Sbarro returned to the mall’s food court after a multiyear absence, moving into the former Mongolian BBQ space.
Two more stores are scheduled to open this year.
Windsor Fashions, a women’s clothing store, is scheduled to open March 26.
Escape This Room, where a group of people are locked in a themed room where they search for hidden clues and solve challenging puzzles to find their way out, is also expected to open early this year.
Pier 1 Imports
Pier 1 Imports announced earlier this month than it might close 450 of its 936 stores, without specifying which ones. Its stores outside Boise Towne Square and at The Village at Meridian continue to operate.
Business Insider reported that Pier 1 has begun removing the stores that will close from its online store locator.
In a recent Facebook post, Pier 1 confirmed that. Pier 1’s Facebook account recently confirmed that the deleted stores are closing.
“If you have any questions about stores in your area, you can visit Pier1.com and enter your zip code at the top of the page,” the company told a customer who asked about store closings. “Closing locations have been removed from this list.”
Both the Boise and Meridian stores are still listed.
Forever 21, Sears
Likewise, Forever 21, a clothing store at Boise Towne Center, remains open. Its company declared bankruptcy last fall and said it would close up to 178 stores in the U.S.
Seritage Growth Properties, a spinoff of Sears Holdings, has taken over ownership of the Sears building at Boise Towne Square and is seeking to market the property. The two-story building has 123,623 square feet.
A year ago, then-mall manager Darren Howard said the Sears space had received attention from companies that might be interested in the space. On Monday, Yejekwe said he didn’t have anything new to report.
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
