An iconic Boise mall store faces its final days. What shoppers should know now
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- Eddie Bauer filed bankruptcy and plans to close all 175 U.S. and Canada stores.
- Boise Towne Square store is liquidating inventory. Discounts now up to 60% off.
- Gift cards redeemable until March 12, 2026; store closing date uncertain.
The end may be near for another prominent national chain store at the Boise Towne Square mall. But there’s still time to take advantage of its going-out-of-business sale.
Eddie Bauer, the outdoor-clothing and gear retailer and an icon of the Northwest, announced in a bankruptcy filing that it plans to close the Boise store — now its only Idaho store — and all of its other stores across the U.S. and Canada.
The filing came Feb. 9, just two weeks after Eddie Bauer closed its store at the Boise Factory Outlets, the last surviving retailer there. The Boise Fire Department has since begun burning buildings at the Boise Factory Outlets for fire training as the site at 6954 S. Eisenman Road transitions to a new life as a Kenworth truck dealership.
In its filing, Eddie Bauer LLC said it has “recently faced a challenging commercial environment” that includes “reduced discretionary spending on outdoor apparel, persistent inflation, and post-COVID-19 supply chain issues.” It said that “a significant number” of its stores are “operating at sub-optimal levels.”
All 175 still-open stores have already begun selling their remaining inventory, the filing said. Furniture, fixtures and equipment are set to be sold eventually, too.
The filing said Eddie Bauer anticipates the stores closing around Mother’s Day in May. But individual stores, possibly including Boise’s, could close weeks earlier if they run out of merchandise — or run so low that it makes no sense to stay open. There were plenty of clothing items still for sale Monday at the Boise store, though the available selection of individual items had dwindled, and some sizes were no longer available.
Signs in the windows of the ground-floor store on Monday said “Entire Store 40% to 60% Off Lowest Ticketed Price” and “Everything Must Go!”
Inside, a sign at the checkout counter said, “Please note: March 12, 2026, is the last day to redeem your gift cards.”
Could that Thursday also be the store’s last day? No one is saying. A store employee who answered the phone Tuesday referred the Idaho Statesman to “corporate.” A public-relations firm representing Eddie Bauer told the Statesman that “we aren’t able to forecast any individual closing dates by location at this time.”
There’s one last hope for the Boise store to stay open: The company seeks bids from interested businesses for any or all of its stores. “To the extent the Debtors determine that selling some or all of the remaining stores will, in their business judgment, maximize the value of their estates, the Debtors may pause or discontinue Store Closings at such stores that become subject to such a sale,” the filing says.
Any news about those likely won’t come until sometime after the March 3 bidding deadline.
Regardless, Eddie Bauer shoppers will still be able to buy online. That’s because a separate company, Outdoor 5 LLC in New York, run Eddie Bauer’s e-commerce, wholesale, design and product-development operations — and those are not involved in the store closures. As of Tuesday, EddieBauer.com was still promoting a Presidents Day sale with discounts up to 40% off.
(Another company owns Eddie Bauer’s intellectual property: Authentic Brands Group in New York. That company licenses the Eddie Bauer brand to Outdoor 5 — and it may license it to other businesses, according to a news release.)
Catalyst Brands of Plano, Texas, is the parent company of Eddie Bauer LLC, which operates the brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. and Canada and is preparing to close them with the help of Hilco Merchant Resources, a Northbrook, Illinois, business with expertise in store-liquidation sales.
Eddie Bauer was founded in Seattle in 1920, and Eddie Bauer LLC still has its headquarters there. The headquarters will close, too, and 60 workers will lose their jobs, the Seattle Times reported.
Other mall stores closing
Another national chain that’s going out of business is Francesca’s, a women’s clothing boutique with a store on the mall’s ground floor. Francesca’s, too, has filed for bankruptcy. “Entire Store 30% to 50% Off,” said a sign in the window on Monday. Francesca’s says it will accept gift cards through Thursday, Feb. 26
Merle Norman Cosmetics has just closed. It has relocated to the Phenix Salon Suites in the Meridian Crossroads Shopping Center at 3909 E. Fairview Ave., Meridian, where it opened on Feb. 2.
The mall has lost other stores, including two anchors: Sears in 2018 and Kohl’s in 2025. Forever 21 closed in 2025, too.
But some businesses are still moving in. Among newly opened stores are Fabletics, a clothing store; Tie One On, a tie store; and Snack, a snack retailer. Glow Golf, where you can play miniature golf in black light, is “coming soon,” the mall’s website says.
This story was originally published February 18, 2026 at 10:00 AM.
