Get your shoes! Payless liquidation sale starts Feb. 17
Payless ShoeSource made it official and announced the closing of all its remaining stores and website.
Liquidation sales will begin on Sunday, according to a statement obtained by Fox Business.
"We expect all stores to remain open until at least the end of March and the majority will remain open until May. This process does not affect the Company’s franchise operations or its Latin American stores, which remain open for business as usual” according to the statement.
Workers who answered the phone at several New Jersey stores on Saturday morning declined to comment and referred calls to the company's corporate office. The corporate website had the word "error" on it.
The chain has 20 stores in New Jersey.
The company has not filed a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) with the state Department of Labor. Companies are required to file 60 days before closings and mass layoffs.
The statement did not mention any severance payment for employees. Toys R Us was pressured into creating a $20 million severance fund months after the chain closed in 2018, according to a Washington Post report, after only top executives were paid and employees did not receive promised payments.
The debt-burdened chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April 2017, closing hundreds of stores as part of its reorganization.
At the time, it had more than 4,400 stores in more than 30 countries. It remerged from restructuring four months later with about 3,500 stores and eliminated more than $435 million in debt.
Payless is the latest retail chain to announce closures. Gymboree is closing remaining stores while the Charlotte Rouse chain is closing 94 stores, including locations in Atlantic City, East Brunswick and Moorestown.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ
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