https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Sun, 19 Apr 2026 09:24:54 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc#post-2136307 Fri, 31 Jul 2020 16:07:47 +0000 Laura (rhubarbgirl) 2136307@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I think the US, in particular, is bad about dealing with things getting smaller. We've built this culture on the concept that things always improve and get bigger and refreshed all the time and that's not sustainable anymore (if it ever was; it was on the backs of other people that this country was built). We need a new way to conceive of ourselves and the way we buy things and the way businesses are run. We need to figure out how to support things going away and things getting smaller without it turning into total destruction.&nbsp; </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc#post-2136070 Wed, 29 Jul 2020 21:40:55 +0000 Leslie 2136070@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I quit shopping at Ann Taylor years ago because 1) their clothes were not cut for my pear-shaped figure and 2) so much of the clothing was synthetic, environmentally-harmful material, which is not what I want to be wearing or buying anymore. How can you call a suit "tropical wool" if it contains less than 50% wool? That is wool-blend at best. AT also went the way of constant 50% off sales on their clothing, which devalues the clothing. No one will pay full price because they know a sale is around the corner.</p> <p>I also gave up on Loft because their garments were even cheaper than AT's, plus I think I psychologically aged out of their target demographic.&nbsp; </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc#post-2136058 Wed, 29 Jul 2020 20:26:08 +0000 Sal 2136058@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Cindy - you expressed it so well. And nailed it:) </p> <p>Similar things have happened here too - cannibalisation of the competitors is exactly what has happened. And when outlets stopped becoming places selling excess stock and having their own range that to me epitomised the crazy path much retail has been on.</p> <p>I do love in person shopping and there will be firms that survive, recalibrate and be successful again. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc#post-2135998 Wed, 29 Jul 2020 15:15:26 +0000 cindysmith 2135998@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>In some ways, a lot of the retail carnage is a correction to the overbuilding of malls, stores, and outlets. There are no less than 5 (FIVE) outlet malls in the DFW metroplex (that I know of), on top of the countless shopping malls the area is home to. None of those numbers include the random stirp malls, or random stand-alone outlet stores and off-price retailers built into strip malls: Beall's, Skechers Outlet, TJMaxx, Factory Connection, Marshall's, Ross, Burlington Coat Factory, Tuesday Morning, and dozens of others that I'm forgetting about right now. I remember my hairstylist in the 90s, Damon, lamenting the newest Walmart superstore going up just a few minutes drive from another Walmart superstore: "How many f@$&amp;ing canister sets with geese painted on them do people really need?"<br /> Damon wasn't wrong. While it is absolutely a shame that so many companies are going bankrupt, and even more awful that so many people are losing their jobs with little opportunity to find a new one, it was inevitable that some stores would have to close because they were cannibalizing shoppers from other locations. I'll use my favorite evil empire example yet again: Walmart came into many many small towns in Texas and built "neighborhood market" grocery stores; in less than a year, many of those stores had closed because there just weren't enough people to support them. Not only did those Walmart workers lose their jobs, so did all the workers at all the stores Walmart ran out of town and out of business. Waskom TX was a prime example of this. Situated on the Texas/Louisiana border, equidistant from Walmarts in Shreveport and Marshall TX (Shreveport has multiple Walmarts, Marshall has one), waskom got a Walmart neighborhood market and lost its local grocer. Within one year, Walmart was closed and waskom was struggling to find anyone to rent the space.</p> <p>Retailers overestimated the potential for growth, overbuilt, overpromised, and under delivered. The coronapocalypse has hastened a slow decline, and retail workers are paying a very expensive price. Shoppers are paying a price as well, in the form of limited options for in-person shopping, limited options for extended sizes (petite, tall, plus), limited options for different style aesthetics, and limited options for quality products. All that expansion and building had to be paid for somehow, and quality is what suffered.</p> <p>I remember back-to-school clothes shopping in the 80s. It involved a trip from the Northside of Atlanta to an aunt's lake house on the Georgia/South Carolina border so that we could spend the night there, drive to the outlets in South Carolina in the morning, shop all day, spend a few nights at the lake house, and return to Atlanta after a couple days spent swimming and skiing and such. It wasn't even just my family. Mom's best friend had a lake house literally next door to my aunt's lake house, so we all piled into cars and made it a festive outing for everybody. Shopping and outlets used to be a big deal because there were so few and they were so far apart. Now, outlets are rarely filled with imperfect items; instead they're filled with lesser quality, licensed versions of already not-so-great quality clothes, shoes, and accessories. </p> <p>Didn't mean to hop on my soap box about this and write a doctoral dissertation. I do get that, for many of us, retail bankruptcies are not good: lost jobs, fewer options for shoppers, empty buildings, unused parking lots and streets that prevent water from absorbing into the earth and cause flash flooding nightmares, collateral damage in the form of lost jobs at restaurants and other secondary businesses that grew around malls and outlets, the list goes on and on. It's awful all around. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc#post-2135901 Tue, 28 Jul 2020 18:31:30 +0000 Inge 2135901@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>It's such sad news, and unfortunately it's happening all over the world right now. Very uncertain times :-(( </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc#post-2135881 Tue, 28 Jul 2020 16:33:20 +0000 Angie 2135881@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>It's all very sad because of unemployment issues, especially. Who knows how this will all shape up.... </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc#post-2135862 Tue, 28 Jul 2020 15:28:28 +0000 unfrumped 2135862@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Wow.<br />AT left my town some years ago, and that, plus what seemed to be reduced quality, put the kabosh on what for me had been a lot of AT shopping. I did still order online for a bit, but sizing was so iffy (I would be in XS to L , depending on item!) that I gave up.</p> <p>BR also left town prior to pandemic.</p> <p>I admit to sometimes being a fair-weather shopper, trying on items in stores and ordering online, but I also was an impatient shopper, so for both of these stores, and others,&nbsp; when I found something I really loved, I did frequently buy right then at full-price, as well as many in-store sale items. Same for WHBM, which is still here but wonder about that.</p> <p>It won't be as big an issue now that I am retired, so not on the work wardrobe circuit any more. Still, at some future non-pandemic time, I could see several of these retailers as good sources, especially for their more fun or casual styles and colors. Also, I anticipated becoming more of an "in season" shopper, possibly for fewer items but staying right in tune with what fits and works for me right now (future "right now").&nbsp;<br />&nbsp;Plus, with way fewer B&amp;M retailers, it will be less likely to be able to see and try on active wear.</p> <p>I worry about only having online shopping because of sizing. I have been trying to get a Boden top and am on my 3rd size! For now, that may fit the models for shipping and returns but I worry that I will be a "bad customer" or that shipping fees will start or go up, or re-stocking fees or something. So might put a further damper on even bothering to shop, </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/ascena-closings-lane-bryant-ann-taylor-loft-etc#post-2135838 Tue, 28 Jul 2020 13:50:48 +0000 Laura (rhubarbgirl) 2135838@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>The Ascena Group that owns Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant, Catherine's, and Justice is restructuring in Chapter 11 and has announced a bunch of store closures. I think we've discussed the bankruptcy here before but I hadn't seen a specific list of locations closing until now. All of the Catherine's stores are closing but the brand is going to continue online. Here's a list of the closing locations so far for each brand:<br /><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/07/23/justice-store-closings-list-2020-ascena-retail-bankruptcy/5489827002/">Justice</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/07/23/store-closings-2020-ann-taylor-ascena-retail-bankruptcy-pandemic/5489885002/">Ann Taylor, AT Factory Store, Loft, Loft Factory Store, Lou &amp; Grey</a><br /><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/07/23/lane-bryant-store-closures-list-closing-stores-outet-locations-bankruptcy/5489894002/">Lane Bryant</a></p> <p>The 'outlet mall' closest to me is closing both its AT Factory Store and its Loft Factory Store - not a big surprise since it's about 1/3 empty already. I'm not sure that outlet malls are going to survive given all the changes in the way people shop in recent years; I feel like COVID might be the last blow for them. </p>