Add The Limited to the growing list of retail chains foundering on troubled waters as the company, a victim of changing tastes, ecommerce and fast fashion, announced it is closing all of its 250 U.S. stores.
[Related: Major Retail Chains Closing Hundreds of Stores]
Fortune reported that the store closures will result in a loss of 4,000 jobs due to ecommerce taking over much of the retail climate today.
On its web site The Limited said it would still remain as an online concern. However as of Jan. 9, everything was 50% off and all sales were final online.
The Washington Post reported that in November, The Limited filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice which indicated a mass layoff at its New Albany, OH headquarters. The report did not say which types of employees would be impacted.
The Limited was founded in 1963 in Columbus, OH as a mall-based specialty retailer. It went public in 1969 and opened 100 stores in 1976. By 1990, The Limited had a total 772 stores. It was acquired in 2007 by Sun Capital Partners, Inc.
The Limited joins Sears, Kohl’s and Macy’s, Sports Authority and several others in the last year that have closed large numbers of stores as a result of the changing retail climate.
MCM Musings: It’s difficult to see some of the country’s major retailers shutting their doors because of the seismic shift in the way people shop. Many of them are trying to compete with the likes of Amazon but could do a better job of seamlessly connecting the online and in-store experience. With technology changing so rapidly, retailers are scrambling to keep on top of it all while meeting ever-evolving customer needs. As recently as the early 2000s, when I worked at then-Limited brand Express while in college, it had just launched a website that only had items on display and not for sale. Now with omnichannel in full swing, the next step is unifying all commerce activities, from the front to the back end, to keep operations in the black.