Say it ain’t so!
Guess — you know, your favorite place to buy jeans as a teenager — will be closing dozens of retail locations.
“We expect to reduce our North American store fleet by roughly 20 stores by the end of the year, with some of them closing this year at their natural lease end,” CEO Carlos Alberini announced during an April 7 earnings call. “Traffic declines into our retail stores have persisted.”
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Although Guess plans to shutter certain locations, they will still maintain their online retail presence. In fact, the company hopes this move will boost operational profits by $30 million.
Guess has stores in the U.S. in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. Guess also operates in Canada, Europe, the Middle East.
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If you grew up in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, it’s no secret how iconic Guess campaigns were. Some notable models for the brand include Claudia Schiffer, Anna Nicole Smith, Drew Barrymore, Carla Bruni, Laetitia Casta, Paris Hilton, Gigi Hadid,Joe Jonas, Jennifer Lopez, and Camila Cabello
Sadly, Guess is hardly the first store to take a hit like this. In 2017, Bebe closed all 170 of their retail stores and moved to strictly online. In 2017, The Limited and Wet Seal also closed their doors and transitioned to online-only operations.
Perhaps one of the biggest Millennial retail losses, however, was American Apparel. Also in 2017, the Tumblr-favorite closed 110 stores and was acquired by Gildan Activewear.
Technically, you can still shop there online, but it’s not the same!
In addition to smaller retailers, plenty of bigger stores and even restaurants are feeling the heat, too. Take Red Robin, for example. The beloved burger chain announced that they’ll be closing over a dozen locations every year until their profits stabilize.
