National fashion chain to shut down ALL 540 stores in weeks – but will clear stock with 90% off bargains first

Rue21 – the teen fashion chain that is a fixture in malls across America – will close all 543 U.S. stores.

Customers will be able to snag deals over the next four to six weeks while the company clears out its inventory, but then the 40-year-old chain will be gone forever. At its peak it had 1,200 stores.

Clearance items are expected to start at a discount of 20 to 50 percent and then go up to as much as 90 percent to clear out stocks that don’t sell initially.

Bosses tried to sell the chain, but none of the bids raised as much money as closing down and selling all the shares. court documents say.

Rue21 includes strip centers, malls and outlet centers in 45 states. Texas has the most stores with 51 stores, followed by Georgia’s 39, while Florida and North Carolina each have 30 stores.

This weekend, Rue21’s website said it was “being updated.” It is thought to be set up for the closing sale, which will take place online and in stores. The 4,900 employees will stay on while the stock is cleared.

Rue21 will close all 543 stores and clear its stock through a sale over the next four to six weeks

Rue21 will be starting a sale to clear out all its stock. The retailer employs approximately 5,000 employees

Rue21, headquartered in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, has filed for bankruptcy twice before.

After the first in 2003, it flourished and, under the motto ‘fashion should be fun and accessible for everyone’, grew to more than 1,200 stores at its peak in 2013.

But it faced financial problems again and in 2017 used bankruptcy to restructure, closing 400 underperforming stores and negotiating leases.

Due to the latest Chapter 11 bankruptcy, all stores will be closed. Court documents show that there will be ‘out of business sales’ in all stores over the next four to six weeks. The country has a debt of about $200 million.

Rue21 also sells its brand name and other intellectual property. This means it could be bought by a rival who could reopen it as a smaller chain or bring it back online.

Interim CEO Michele Pascoe said in a court filing that the retailer was hit hard by a shift to online shopping accelerated by Covid.

hit hard by a shift to online shopping accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neil Saunders of GlobalData

Retail expert Neil Saunders blamed the brand’s “growing irrelevance to teenage consumers.”

“Rue21 does not have a very compelling proposition and is losing customers to other retailers and to cheaper and more interesting fashion platforms such as Shein,” Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told CNN.

“There is still a big question mark as to whether the retail market needs Rue21 to exist.”

Rue21 is the latest to file for bankruptcy and store closures.

In April, Express, another major retail chain, filed for bankruptcy and said it would close 95 Express locations in addition to all its UpWest stores.

Rue21’s website was offline this weekend

The West Coast brand – which has stores in California, Texas, Arizona and Nevada – announced last week that all 371 stores would close, although it did not provide a timeline for the closures. In the photo: the first 99 Cents store ever opened on La Tijera Boulevard

That same month, discount chain 99 Cents Only Stores said it would close all 371 stores as it went bankrupt.

Die-hard 99 Cents Only shoppers have flocked to California stores and cleared the shelves to score bargains.

Meanwhile, national coffee and luxury supermarket chain Foxtrot also said in its third bankruptcy in April that it will close all its stores with immediate effect, leaving staff and customers stunned.

Founded in 2014 in Chicago, Foxtrot had 33 locations in the Chicago, Austin, Dallas and Washington DC areas.