Bankrupt and closing stores: Here’s what the future may hold for these 4 Fresno retailers
The parent company of clothing stores Ann Taylor LOFT, Catherine’s, Justice and Lane Bryant has filed for bankruptcy and plans to close many of its stores.
Ascena Retail Group owns the popular clothing stores with hundreds of locations nationwide, many of them in local malls and shopping centers.
So what does this mean for Fresno and the Valley, home to many of its stores?
Here’s what we know:
Catherines, a women’s plus-size store with 14 locations in California, will close all its locations. The store has one location in Fresno on Shaw Avenue near Brawley Avenue.
Catherines clothing will still be available online. As part of the bankruptcy, Ascena plans to sell the Catherines online business to a new owner.
As for the other stores, some will survive, but there will be closures. The company has not released a list of locations that will close.
Justice is the tween retailer catering to girls ages 6 to 12. It has locations in River Park, Fashion Fair and the Tulare Outlets.
As part of the bankruptcy restructuring agreement, the company plans to close “a significant number” of Justice stores.
It also plans to close “a select number” of Ann Taylor LOFT and Lane Bryant stores.
River Park is home to a LOFT store, the discount version of Ann Taylor. River Park’s Ann Taylor store closed in 2017.
Lane Bryant, a major player in the local plus-size market, has four stores in the Valley: at Shaw Avenue and First Street, and at the Villaggio shopping center at Blackstone and Nees avenues in Fresno, at the Packwood Creek shopping center in Visalia, and at the Tulare Outlets.
Just which stores will close depends upon the company’s ability to reach new deals on leases with its landlords, it said in a news release.
The clothing stores were already struggling before the coronavirus pandemic hit, with the company having closed its Dressbarn locations and sold its Maurices clothing stores. The effects of COVID-19, including closing malls in California for months at a time, worsened its situation.
Though several local businesses are closing, the pandemic is hitting national retailers, too. Pier 1, Kirkland’s, Tuesday Morning, and Sur La Table are all closing locations in Fresno.
This story was originally published July 23, 2020 at 11:55 AM.
