The Children’s Place in Towne Square Mall permanently closing

June 17, 2020 | 2:14 pm

Updated June 17, 2020 | 2:16 pm

The Children’s Place located in Owensboro’s Towne Square Mall will be closing permanently according to a member of store management, though a date was not immediately available. The location reopened Tuesday after an extended closure due to the coronavirus.

The entire store is having a 75% off liquidation sale, including an additional 75% off clearance items. The two nearest locations will now be in Evansville and Bowling Green.

The children’s retail company said they were closing 300 stores by the end of the 2021 fiscal year as they shift focus to online sales. According to a release on The Children’s Place website:

“In an effort to structurally position the company for continued success, we are significantly accelerating our fleet optimization initiative, and focusing our resources on accelerating our digital sales, both key elements of our long-standing transformation strategy. … This initiative will greatly reduce our reliance on our brick-and-mortar channel and we are targeting our mall-based, brick-and-mortar portfolio to represent less than 25% of our revenue entering fiscal 2022.”

Ed Ray, Gulfstream Commercial Services chief operating officer, said it underlines a trend for stores across the country moving away from physical locations.

“The effects of the coronavirus on retail impacts establishments all across the country, some worse than others,” he said. “Any business that needs to close stores nationally certainly is not only a result of the impact they may have had with the coronavirus, but it’s certainly being impacted by the amount of people that are switching to buying everything online.”

Ray said it’s important for people to continue to shop local, or there will continue to be closures.

“We’ve just got to do our part to shop local and safely get out to the stores that are open,” he said. “We have to utilize traditional shopping before traditional shopping ceases to be an option.”

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June 17, 2020 | 2:14 pm

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