21 is not forever

The popular clothing store Forever 21 filed for bankruptcy in September. Forever 21 is one of my favorite stores, because it sells mostly cheap and stylish clothing. Being a teenager, we don’t always have a lot of money to spend on clothes, and finding stores in our price ranges in a mall can be difficult. With more and more stores shutting down, this could cause challenges for malls to stay alive. 

In addition to filing for bankruptcy, Forever 21 will be closing around 350 stores worldwide, including 178 stores in the United States. The company website will continue to be available for all over the world, despite the company closing all stores in 40 countries. According to Forbes, “Forever 21 is one of the largest tenants of American malls, and landlords already struggling to fill retail space could face a major hit if a bankruptcy filing was used to shutter stores.” If Forever 21 went away completely, it could pose a threat to malls all over America. 

Being a teenager who likes to buy a lot of clothes and hang out at the mall, threats to malls staying open aren’t good news. With more affordable stores closing down, it could cause fewer teens to go to the mall. When my friends and I go shopping, we enjoy cheaper stores, because we are spending our own money. If stores like Forever 21 keep disappearing, it’s less likely that teens can be shopping at malls as much as they do now. 

There isn’t much we can do to help malls and stores like Forever 21, other than going shopping in malls more often. Online shopping is causing the “retail apocalypse,” which is when more stores shut down due to online shopping. Online shopping is harming mostly independent businesses that don’t have the option to shop online. With fewer people coming to the mall, business is failing in these small stores. In order to save these businesses, and even large companies like Forever 21, people should be shopping in malls more often. This will help sales  increase, which can help all stores to stay alive.