National teen retailer to close 400 stores

Rue21, a national teen specialty retailer with a Middle Georgia presence, plans to close some of its stores.

“As part of our ongoing business transformation into a more cost efficient operator, we are closing unprofitable stores across our fleet in order to focus on our many hundreds of highly profitable locations,” according to an email from the company. “The exact number and timing of these closings will be determined in the coming weeks.”

However, according to The Associated Press and other media reports, rue21 is closing nearly 400 stores, leaving it with more than 700 stores in 48 states.

WFMJ.com, an NBC affiliate in Youngstown, Ohio, about an hour north of the Warrendale, Pennsylvania-based company, posted a list of the closures. The rue 21 stores to close in Georgia include the ones at the Milledgeville Mall and the Dublin Mall.

The company’s stores at the Macon Mall and at The Shoppes of River Crossing in Macon and on Watson Boulevard in Warner Robins are not on the closure list.

The company posted Saturday on its Facebook page: “It’s true — we are closing some stores. It was a difficult but necessary decision. We still have hundreds of locations across the country, and our website rue21.com, is open for business.”

The retailer is yet another one in a round of store closures announced since last year.

This story was originally published April 17, 2017 at 6:35 PM with the headline "National teen retailer to close 400 stores."