J. Crew in Fresno’s Fig Garden Village is closing. Here’s what we know about why

J. Crew in Fig Garden Village is closing.

The national clothing retailer’s last day will be Sunday, Jan. 27.

The sales have already started, with 50 percent off all regular-priced merchandise and 60 percent off items that are already on sale. Shoppers who are J. Crew Rewards members can get an additional 20 percent off.

A worker at the J. Crew store referred questions about why the store is closing to its corporate headquarters, which did not immediately respond to messages. The shopping center owner also was not immediately available to comment on the closure.

Closures in Fig Garden Village have gotten special attention in recent years as several tenants – like Uncle Harry’s, Viva La Vault and Top Drawer – were unhappy about moving or closing.

But the closure of the Fresno location appears to be a symptom of broader struggles facing J. Crew.

Sales have been slipping at the retailer for the past three years. J. Crew was once hugely popular, but lately shoppers have come to view the store as “overpriced, generic, and even ‘wannabe trendy,’ ” according to a Business Insider story.

J. Crew also plans to close stores in Savannah, Ga.; Greenville, S.C.; Baton Rouge, La.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Toronto and elsewhere.

Back in late 2017, the retailer announced it would close 39 stores and ended up closing even more.

J. Crew’s sister store, Madewell, is owned by the same company. Its store in Fig Garden Village, near Starbucks, will remain open.

While J. Crew struggles, Madewell has been raking in the sales, with a 22 percent increase in same-store sales in the third quarter of 2018.

Despite the closure, Fig Garden Village has had several openings recently, including Reinvent Juicery, and has lured Anthropologie away from Fashion Fair. Bakery La Boulangerie is expanding, removing a wall and taking over the space next door, in addition to opening up a walk-up window downtown. Restaurant Cowboy Chicken is scheduled to open later this year.

This story was originally published January 14, 2019 at 2:17 PM.