Commentary: Collapse of Ascena Retail Group, parent of Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant and others, has potential to create devastating ripple effects
Ascena has not detailed exactly how many stores it will close. It committed to closing all of its Catherines outposts, which numbered almost 300 as of February. It said it will shutter a “significant” portion of its more than 800 Justice stores, and a “select” number of its Ann Taylor, Loft, Lane Bryant and Lou & Grey locations.
COVID lockdowns haven’t helped, it’s true — masses of professional women working from home in their casual clothes during the pandemic has certainly made for a tough turn for Ann Taylor. But the chain was hurting long before this crisis, part of a bewildering collective failure of the retail industry to make attire women want to wear at the office. The Ascena bankruptcy isn’t even the first one this month that resulted, in part, from that ineptitude: RTW Retailwinds Inc.
Customers may have returned to stores at a faster clip than some retailers anticipated, but traffic generally remains at levels the industry was not built to sustain.
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