Forever 21 is not forever in Philadelphia. These two local stores are closing.
The retail apparel brand is looking for a buyer and could close all Pennsylvania locations.
Forever 21 anticipates closing all stores in Pennsylvania, including two in the Philadelphia area, amid the company’s search for a buyer.
The closures were announced in two layoff notices the company filed on Feb. 17 with the Philadelphia Department of Commerce.
“These closures are necessary because economic realities require the company to restructure its business operations,” chief financial officer Bradley Sell said in the notice.
The company is closing its Fashion District location as well as its store in Philadelphia Mills. In total, 36 employees will be laid off across both locations between April 23 and May 7, although an exact closing date for the stores was not provided in the notice.
The company also anticipates closing all Forever 21 stores in Pennsylvania, the notice indicates. The retailer currently has 17 stores in the state, including in Lancaster, Erie, and King of Prussia, according to its website. There are also 15 in New Jersey and two in Delaware, among the company’s total of over 540 locations.
Sell said in the Commerce Department filing that there is no opportunity to employ soon to be laid off workers at other nearby company locations.
More closures across the country
The local closures come as Forever 21 is looking for a buyer to take over the business, according to the notice. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the company is considering filing for bankruptcy, citing people familiar with the matter.
The apparel company was founded in 1984 by husband and wife Do Won and Jin Sook Chang, immigrants from South Korea, who kept the company privately owned.
Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and then was acquired by Simon Property Group, Brookfield Property Partners and Authentic Brands Group in 2020. The company’s former CEO, Winnie Park, who joined Forever 21 in 2022, now leads Philadelphia-based Five Below.
The company has faced competition from digital fast fashion brands such as Shein and Temu, the Wall Street Journal reports. Forever 21 has also taken a hit from long leases for large stores that were difficult to fill with merchandise as it expanded around the time of the Great Recession, the New York Times reported in 2019.
The company’s Los Angeles headquarters is closing, according to the Los Angeles Business Journal, and some 200 store closures are planned, Bloomberg News reports, as a bankruptcy process is expected to kick off soon.
Forever 21 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Other retailers closed in Philadelphia
The Philadelphia region has seen other retailers close locations or exit entirely in recent months.
Joann, a chain of stores that sell crafts supplies, announced recently that it is closing all stores after filing for bankruptcy earlier in the year.
Party City, which had more than a dozen stores in the region, planned to close all of them by the end of February as it went out of business. Big Lots also kicked off going-out-of-business sales late last year.