When word came nearly two years ago in 2017 that Payless ShoeSource was on the verge of filing for bankruptcy and potentially closing hundreds of stores in the near future, there was hope in Michigan’s Great Southwest that the Orchards Mall store would survive the cut, just as the Mall’s JCPenney store had done earlier in the month. There was no such luck that time around, as The Orchards Mall Payless store was on the list of nearly four hundred underperforming stores to be closed that year. The Niles Payless store, however, was not.
Now, unfortunately for Payless fans in Michigan’s Great Southwest, the end is apparently at hand. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon that Payless ShoeSource will close all of its approximately 2,100 stores remaining in the U.S. and Puerto Rico as part of the largest retail liquidation ever. The Journal was citing a source close to the situation.
Back in 2017, Payless did file for bankruptcy protection and emerged later that year. According to the WSJ report, customers can expect liquidation efforts to get underway as early as next week.
Payless ShoeSource has been the largest specialty family footwear retailer in the Western Hemisphere.
Their store at 2706 S. 11th Street in Niles, which was not targeted for closure two years ago is likely included in the 2,100 U.S. and Puerto Rican stores on the block to be eliminated nationwide. When the Orchards Mall store was closed in 2017, there were also closings across the state of Michigan including stores in Adrian, Cadillac, Detroit, Monroe, Okemos, Bay City, Alpena, Sterling Heights, and Big Rapids. Stay tuned.
The photo accompanying this story on Moody on the Market is of the former Orchards Mall Payless store closed two years ago, when the firm went into bankruptcy proceedings.
