‘Everything must go:’ So long to this big nonanchor fashion store at Boise Towne Square
Forever 21 is closing its store at the Boise Towne Square mall.
The fast-fashion retailer also plans to close at least 200 other stores nationwide as the company prepares for a second possible bankruptcy filing, Bloomberg News reported. Forever 21 first declared bankruptcy in 2019, but was saved by a buyout from America’s largest mall operators and a firm called Authentic Brands Group.
For a while, the chain’s revival seemed to be going swimmingly. NPR reported just a couple of years ago that Forever 21 had, in fact, found life after death.
But some of its stores now slated to close have been losing money for years, and the potential bankruptcy, which is expected to kick off in March, would rely on a qualified buyer purchasing its remaining stores, according to Bloomberg News. Forever 21 did not respond to an Idaho Statesman request for comment.
Signs in and around its Boise store, on the second level of the mall next to Macy’s, said all merchandise was 10-40% off, with limited exceptions. It’s the retailer’s only store in Idaho.
“Everything must go,” one sign said.
The store opened in 2008 in a nearly 18,000-square-foot space, among the largest spaces in the mall apart from the department stores, BoiseDev reported in 2019. A spokesperson for the mall did not respond to a question about what might replace it.
Its not the only major store at the mall closing. Kohl’s announced in January that it would close its Towne Square store, one of the anchors, and over two dozen others nationwide by April in a bid to stave off the fate of some of its peers, like Sears, JCPenney and Bed Bath & Beyond, which all struggled with dismal sales for years before filing for bankruptcy, according to Axios.
A smaller mall store is closing too: Volcom, a clothing chain that caters to skateboarders, snowboarders and surfers. The stores’ operator, Liberated Brands, filed for bankruptcy in early February and announced plans to close more than 100 Volcom, Billabong and Quiksilver stores.
One other anchor space at the mall already sits empty, formerly occupied by Sears, which closed in 2019.
This story was originally published February 21, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
