Payless Lets Other Shoe Drop, Closing 475 Stores Over Next 3 Years

Customers of Payless ShoeSource have apparently taken the name of the business to heart, giving the company so little money that it has decided to shut down 475 poorly performing stores over the next three years. Of the shops — including sister franchise Stride Rite — being set up to be stomped, 300 are scheduled to be closed by the end of the fiscal year.

The Wall Street Journal reports Payless and Stride Rite parent company Collective Brands Inc. lost $35 million in the quarter that ended last month. Payless stores contributed to the losses by dropping 2.7 percent domestically. But it was the $83.6 million in goodwill impairment, in which companies lower the declining value of aspects of their businesses, and severance charges that caused the bulk of the losses.

Payless Parent to Shut Weaker Stores [The Wall Street Journal]

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