Wet Seal to shut down operations, close all stores

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Jan 30, 2017

Retailers are off to a shaky start to 2017. Wet Seal is the latest of many retailers to announce that it is closing all of its stores.
 

According to a letter from Wet Seal dated on January 20 and obtained by the Wall Street Journal, the teen retailer has plans to shut down operations, close all 171 of its stores, and lay off all of its employees.
 
The American media reported last week that Wet Seal’s parent company, Versa Capital, was “considering liquidating all of its stores and solely operating as an online retailer.”

The firm acquired Wet Seal in April 2015 for $7.5 million in cash following the retailer’s first bankruptcy. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Versa could not find a buyer or the funding to keep the retailer in business. Around the time of Wet Seal’s acquisition less than two years ago, the retailer closed up to 300 brick-and-mortar locations.
 
Prior to this announcement, The Limited shut down all of its stores after rumblings of massive layoffs and sale exploration. The retailer’s CEO and interim CEO both left the company in a span of two months.
 
In addition, BCBG announced that it would shutter stores to reduce its retail footprint and focus on e-commerce. The company is responding to shopping trends such as the increase in online purchases and the decrease in mall traffic, which the press reports is the reason for Versa shutting down Wet Seal operations.