Rue21 to shut 5 area stores

Retailer pursues online sales

Five southeastern Wisconsin locations of teen apparel retailer rue21 have been marked for closing as the firm shutters hundreds of stores nationwide.

The rue21 website indicates that the Pittsburgh-area company will close its stores at the Midtown Center near N. 60th St. and W. Capitol Drive in Milwaukee; N96-W19140 County Line Road in Germantown; 1160 W. Sunset Drive, Waukesha; 1331 W Paradise Drive, West Bend; and 652 N. Edwards Blvd. in Lake Geneva.

The Associated Press has reported that rue21 will close nearly 400 of its roughly 1,200 stores as it turns more attention toward its online business.

The closures mark a sharp about-face for rue21, which operates in the “fast fashion” niche, where clothing retailers seek to get inexpensive versions of the latest trends on the racks as quickly as possible.

Until recently, rue21 was aggressively expanding. From 2010 through this January, the company added nearly 700 stores. The growth slowed over the last two years, but didn’t stop until recently. The Milwaukee and Germantown locations that will be closed, for example, both opened in 2015.

Formerly publicly traded, rue21 was purchased in 2013 by private equity firm Apax Partners in a transaction valued at $1.1 billion.

Besides the southeastern Wisconsin stores to be closed, rue21 operates area locations at Brookfield Square, Southridge, in the West Allis Towne Center, in Timmerman Plaza Shopping Center on Milwaukee’s northwest side, at Regency Mall in Racine, and at the Johnson Creek Premium Outlets.

The chain has several other Wisconsin locations that remain open, including stores in Appleton, Green Bay, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac and Wausau. A store in Plover, near Stevens Point, is slated for closing.