Low-price fashion chain Forever twenty-one, a once-hot destination for teenage shoppers that fell victim to its own fast enlargement and dynamic client tastes, has filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection.
The private control company based mostly in la aforesaid Sunday it’ll clean up to 178 stores within the U.S. As of the bankruptcy filing, the corporate operated concerning 800 stores globally, together with quite five hundred stores within the U.S.
The company aforesaid it might specialize in increasing the worth of its U.S. stores and shutter certain international locations. Forever 21 plans to close most of its locations in Asia and Europe but will continue operating in Mexico and Latin America.
“The choices on that domestic stores are closing are current, unfinished the result of continued conversations with landlords,” it aforesaid within the statement.
“We do, however, expect a major variety of those stores can stay open and operate as was common and that we don’t expect to exit any major markets within the U.S.”
Forever 21 joins Barneys New York and Diesel USA on a growing list of retailers seeking bankruptcy protection as they battle online competitors. Others, like Payless ShoeSource and charlotte, have finished off fully.
The numbers show the crisis facing traditional retailers. So far this year, publicly traded U.S. retailers have declared they’re going to shut eight,558 stores and open three,446, in line with the worldwide analysis firm Coresight analysis.
That compares with five,844 closures and three,258 openings in all of 2018. Coresight estimates the shop closures might variety twelve,000 by the top of 2019.
Their quality grew throughout the good Recession, once shoppers sought-after fashion bargains. But over the last year just about, quick fashion has fallen out of favor.
Young customers are losing interest in throw-away garments and are additionally fascinated by shopping for an eco-friendly product. They’re conjointly gravitating toward rental and on-line second-hand sites like Thredup, where they see clothes worn again instead of ending up in a landfill.
These trends are happening whereas discounters like Target have dolled up their fashion assortments, stealing away customers.
Forever twenty-one has conjointly been additionally vulnerable than other chains as a result of its giant footprints in major malls, that are attracting fewer shoppers.