Teen Retailer Rue 21 Closing 400 Stores

Some more bad news on the shopping front: Teen clothing retailer Rue 21 is closing 400 stores.

The company posted a message on its official facebook page that said: “It’s true – we are closing some stores. It was a difficult but necessary decision. We still have hundreds of locations across the country, and our website rue21.com, open for business.”

Of course, this is terrible news for the employees at those stores who will soon be out of work. In several Facebook comments, a representative for Rue 21 did say that the company will be holding store closing sales at the locations that are closing up shop.

https://www.facebook.com/rue21/posts/10154480422217405

There’s no official word on exactly which store locations will be closing or how soon. When people commented on the Rue 21 Facebook post, a representative for the company asked each commenter to send a private message for more specific details.

“As part of our ongoing business transformation into a more cost-efficient operator, we are closing unprofitable stores across our fleet in order to focus on our many hundreds of highly profitable locations,” a company spokeswoman told Women’s Wear Daily.

The spokeswoman also said the store was working with “lenders and bondholders to find the best solution to the company’s need for more capital and for a business model with less debt.”

Rue 21, which currently has roughly 1,200 store locations in all 48 states, filed for bankruptcy in 2002. After that, the company changed its name from Pennsylvania Fashions Inc. to Rue 21 and went public.

Of course, Rue 21 isn’t the only retailer that’s struggling amid a growing online marketplace. Here are 17 other popular retailers closing locations in 2017.