Shopping malls across the country are seeing apparel retailers closing doors. Top young women’s retailers Body Central, Deb Shops, Delia’s and Wet Seal recently announced store closings that will total over 1,000 locations. These vacancies leave room for other growing retailers to move in.
Body Central Corp. recently closed all of its 271 stores. The women’s apparel chain targeting teens and young adults operated stores averaging 4,300 square feet in regional malls and lifestyle centers. Deb Shops Inc., with an average store size of 6,000 square feet, announced it will soon close all its 295 stores, leaving 1.8 million square feet of selling space open for the taking. Delia’s Inc., which began as a catalog brand for teen girls, announced last month it would close its 100-store chain and go out of business. An average Delia’s store is 3,800 square feet. Wet Seal Inc. is trying to stay alive and keep 170 or so stores open, announcing it will close at least 338 locations. The closure of these 3,900 average square foot stores has already begun.
These four retailers with spots in strip malls and regional shopping malls are soon leaving more than 4.6 million square feet of empty retail selling space up for grabs. Three of these young women’s clothing chains were listed in Chain Store Guide’s top 100 apparel specialty stores ranked by sales. Body Central Corp., Deb Shops Inc. and Wet Seal Inc. ranked 99, 98 and 75 respectively in the 2015 database of Apparel Specialty Stores using last year’s sales results.
The young women’s apparel industry lost Dots last year, leaving its 400 stores vacant. Rainbow Apparel Co. Inc. scooped up a few of the old Dots locations and is probably scouting the newly vacant spots left by Body Central, Deb, Delia’s and Wet Seal. Certainly other growing retailers are as well. Top women’s apparel and accessory retailers Charming Charlie, Rue 21 and Zumiez all have similar average store sizes and announced plans to open at least 50 new stores this year. Chain Store Guide has information on all the above mentioned retailers and over 65,000 top apparel retail locations. For more details please see www.chainstoreguide.com.