Stamford Town Center hit by departure of 3 national retailers
STAMFORD — The Stamford Town Center is facing a series of recent and upcoming closings, including the departure of three national retailers.
Apparel brands Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle Outfitters have shuttered their stores that were, respectively, located on the downtown mall’s fourth and fifth floors. Videogame chain GameStop has also posted closing signs in its shop on the fourth level.
A message left Monday for Stamford Town Center’s management was not immediately returned.
Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle also have stores at The SoNo Collection mall in Norwalk. In the past year and a half, Apple, Chico’s, Clarks, H&M, Pandora and Talbots have closed stores at Stamford Town Center before or after opening new locations at the SoNo Collection. Several retailers, however, have maintained locations at both malls.
“We always put our customers at the center of everything we do, which includes constantly evaluating our stores to ensure we are meeting our customers’ needs,” Abercrombie & Fitch said in a statement provided by a spokesperson. “This sometimes involves relocating or closing a specific store, as we continue to create the more intimate, omni-enabled experiences that our customers have told us they are looking for.”
In the statement, A&F also said
that “we strongly believe stores matter. We have been on a journey to optimize our store fleet over the past several years, while also providing an engaging online experience, where we know many of our customers also enjoy shopping and interacting with us.”
This month, A&F is also closing flagship stores in Brussels; Fukuoka, Japan; London; Madrid; Munich; and Paris. It shut down a flagship store in Dusseldorf, Germany, in October.
A&F still has about 850 stores worldwide, including the SoNo Collection location, which opened in late 2019.
Through a statement provided by a spokesperson, American Eagle gave similar reasons for its Stamford closing. The company operates more than 1,000 stores across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and China.
“We have a largely profitable store fleet, and it remains an important channel of commerce and customer engagement touch point, together with our rapidly growing digital channel,” the statement said. “As part of our ongoing strategy, we continue to evaluate and reposition stores to ensure we are retaining customers and profitably growing our business.”
The A&F and American Eagle statements did not comment on whether their Norwalk stores’ openings contributed to their decisions to leave Stamford Town Center.
A message left for GameStop was not immediately returned.
Men’s-clothing store Zane is also holding a closing sale at Stamford Town Center, while other recent exits at the mall include the Kilim Design rug store.
Amid the closings, the mall is still bringing in new tenants. Its new owner, the home-furnishings retailer Safavieh, last month opened a showroom on the fifth floor.
Safavieh committed to opening a store in the Town Center immediately after it acquired the mall for about $20 million in October. The mall showroom complements the company’s neighboring Stamford store, an approximately 100,000-square-foot location at 230 Atlantic St., and an establishment in Norwalk.
Upcoming openings include a J. Luppino Fitness & Co. center, which will fill the fourth-floor storefront vacated by Apple.