Filene's Basement Closing 11 Stores

http://www.boston.com/business/artic...ose_11_stores/

Filene's Basement, the landmark Boston merchant that claims to have invented the bargain, yesterday said it is planning to close nearly one-third of its 36 stores, including one in Framingham.

In addition to the Framingham location, stores to be closed include three in Maryland, two in Illinois, two in Pennsylvania, and one each in New Jersey, New York, and Virginia.

Originally Posted by NH_Clark

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Filene's Basement, the landmark Boston merchant that claims to have invented the bargain, yesterday said it is planning to close nearly one-third of its 36 stores, including one in Framingham.

In addition to the Framingham location, stores to be closed include three in Maryland, two in Illinois, two in Pennsylvania, and one each in New Jersey, New York, and Virginia.

So does that mean big clearance sales or just moving stock around? And how do we know exactly which stores are closing? I can imagine at least one in Maryland that ought to be closed--no loss there--but I'd be interested in knowing exactly which ones are going away.

b

Framingham sucks. They'd have to pay me to take the stuff they stock there.

Originally Posted by HalfCanvas

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Framingham sucks. They'd have to pay me to take the stuff they stock there.

that's kind of how I feel about the Peabody, MA store.

Overall, it's probably a non-event as I suspect that these were underperforming stores with limited quality stock. As much as I'd love to see some significant stock blowout it will probably be business as usual.

I'm not surprised. Why have so many stores in the dc area? One or two larger stores would make more sense. Im guessing this means the one in tysons, the one north of baltimore the one in mazza and one that I didnt know existed...

Leaving the one in dc.

the one near me is absolutely garbage, they have two kinds of clothes....Brioni and junk.

In Hamilton where i live, they dont have a market for Brioni, no sense in having it in the stores in the quantity that they did, and the prices werent very good, by the time the prices got good, then the few good peices were gone.

They had a very very limited selection of polo from bloomingdales.

The place looked a mess all the time, its horrendous, piles of clothes, brioni and borrelli thrown about in a way that doesnt represent those goods very well.

My suggestion to filenes would be simple, fire your buyers, and find people who actually understand the dynamics of the area the store is in, Hamilton NJ doesnt know what Brioni is for the most part, and they arent buying it. Just look at the stores in the area, the highest of high end in my area is Polo RL, and they had very little of that.

Originally Posted by rdawson808

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So does that mean big clearance sales or just moving stock around? And how do we know exactly which stores are closing? I can imagine at least one in Maryland that ought to be closed--no loss there--but I'd be interested in knowing exactly which ones are going away.

b

The store locator on the Filene's Basement website seems to have the updates. The Tysons (Virginia) store is not listed there anymore. The Maryland stores to be closed are in Towson, Hunt Valley, and Columbia. The one in Rockville, which has mostly crap, appears to remain open.

WBAL report

For the Maryland Filene's, there's one on Rockville Pike/355, in the same shopping center as G Street Fabrics. It's no loss, either.

I was in the FB in Hunt Valley, Maryland last week and they weren't taking returns. Signs said all sales final. When I asked the SA indicated it was a new policy as of December 26 and that the store might not even make it. I guess she was right.

Wouldn't be a huge loss but I really wouldn't want to lose all the FBs near me. I can name just 3 in MD so I hope they aren't the only ones. Not a lot of truly high end stuff there but there is the occasional last stop for Barneys merch. There's a nice Borrelli sportcoat in Hunt Valley but they still wanted $1,100 for it and with sales final I didn't want to risk not being able to flip it.

FB is also great for home items like towels, glassware and the like I have found. Shame.

I was in the closing store in Levittown NY yesterday. There are a few nice Vault items but the discount is no better than at all other FB locations. Other items in the store are 10%-40% off but it is mostly CK, Nautica, American Eagle, etc. All sales are final. The nice things there are a cashmere Etro sportcoat for $270 (sz 44R) and an Oxxford sportcoat in Crown Cashmere for $900. They tagged it a 42L but it is actually MTM or Bespoke for Leo Van Munching. If anyone knows Mr Van Munching please tell him that his jacket is ready. Etro: Oxxford:

I've stopped into the Rockville Filene's a few times when travelling through DC. I was never really all that impressed with the men's department. However, I always managed to pull some great deals on Chanel and Pucci scarves for gifts.

Looks like both Chicago locations are closing.

Originally Posted by scot

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I'm not surprised. Why have so many stores in the dc area? One or two larger stores would make more sense. Im guessing this means the one in tysons, the one north of baltimore the one in mazza and one that I didnt know existed...

Leaving the one in dc.

there is one in Rockville that stinks. The best one's are downtown and Mazza. I can't imagine them closing Mazza but who knows? That's an anchor store of what is already a considerably small mall of luxury stores. I for one love going from Neimans to Saks and down to Filenes.....

Originally Posted by bobbers

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The store locator on the Filene's Basement website seems to have the updates. The Tysons (Virginia) store is listed there anymore. The Maryland stores to be closed are in Towson, Hunt Valley, and Columbia. The one in Rockville, which has mostly crap, appears to remain open.

WBAL report

That is odd... the Tyson's store isn't listed!

Originally Posted by unpainted huffheinz

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Looks like both Chicago locations are closing.

That's surprising as both the State Street and Michigan Ave locations are always busy. I figured they would hit the western burb stores first.