Payless to close U.S. stores, including 6 in Ventura County

The end is near for six Payless ShoeSource stores in Ventura County that are closing along with all of the budget shoe chain’s U.S. locations.

Payless ShoeSource confirmed Friday that it will close its 2,100 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico and start liquidation sales Sunday. The company is also shuttering its e-commerce operations. 

In Ventura County, the chain has locations at the Centerpoint Mall, Esplanade Shopping Center and Shopping at the Rose in Oxnard; the Pacific View mall in Ventura; Janss Marketplace in Thousand Oaks; and Sycamore Square in Simi Valley.

Earlier coverage:

• Payless sold its discount shoes for $600 a pair at mock luxury influencer event
• As shopping habits change, Ventura-area cities, retailers aim to respond

The closing marks the biggest by a single chain this year and nearly doubles the number of retail stores set to close in 2019.

Early Sunday afternoon, business continued as usual at the store in Oxnard's Esplanade Shopping Center as the liquidation sale launched. A "store closing" sign hung in one window. In another, a sign in Spanish announced "todo debe salir" — everything must go.

Mike and Irene Gaffney of Oxnard knew the chain would be shutting down and dropped by to take a look. Items were 20 percent off, but Mike Gaffney said he was hoping for more.

"We used to shop with them a lot when the kids were with us," he said of the chain.

For Oxnard resident Alejandra Beard, news of the chain's pending demise came as a surprise.

"Wow, that's sad," said Beard, who has enjoyed shopping there over the years. "Sometimes when you don't have anything to do, you can just come here and look around," she said.

“We expect all stores to remain open until at least the end of March and the majority will remain open until May,” the company said in a statement to USA TODAY. “This process does not affect the company’s franchise operations or its Latin American stores, which remain open for business as usual.”

On Wednesday, Coresight Research released an outlook of 2019 store closures that said there was “no light at the end of the tunnel.”

Prior to the Payless announcement, 2,187 store closings had been announced in the first six weeks of the year, according to the global market research firm’s report. This represented a 23 percent increase over the same time period last year.

Those closings include 749 Gymboree stores, 251 Shopko stores and 94 Charlotte Russe locations. 

For 2018, Coresight Research tracked 5,524 closings, which included all Toys R Us stores, hundreds of Mattress Firm stores, Kmart and Sears locations. The record year for closings was 2017 with 8,139 shuttered stores, Coresight reported.

The Topeka, Kansas-based discount shoe retailer had previously filed for bankruptcy protection in 2017 and closed 673 stores.

In a September news release, Payless said it was “the largest specialty footwear retailer in the Western Hemisphere” with more than 3,500 stores in 40 countries worldwide and nearly 18,000 employees.