The discount shoe retailer known for asking "doesn't it feel good to pay less?" is answering its own question this week with a resounding "no" as it files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Payless announced late Monday that it would be shutting down all 2,500 of its stores across North America this spring. This includes all 248 of its stores in Canada, which together employ roughly 2,400 people.
Founded in 1956, the famously low-priced footwear store had grown in recent decades to become one of the largest brands of its kind. Rumours of its demise have been swirling since 2017, however, when the company filed for bankruptcy protection and closed 400 stores in the U.S.
Things do not appear to have improved for Payless, which said in Monday's bankruptcy filing that it now owes approximately $470 million to creditors.
"The challenges facing retailers today are well documented, and unfortunately Payless emerged from its prior reorganization ill-equipped to survive in today's retail environment," said the company's chief restructuring officer Stephen Marotta in a statement this week.
Payless will begin shuttering stores continent-wide in March, and expects to have all 2,500 closed by the end of May.
The Topeka, Kansas-based chain shut down online sales via its website immediately, but says it could start liquidating its remaining assets as soon as this Sunday.
Gift cards will only be honoured until March 11, according to Forbes, so get to shopping and pay your last respects to the OGs of BOGO.
by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO
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