Home furnishings retailer Williams Sonoma has announced plans to close at least two stores this month. A store located in a Whitehall, Pennsylvania, mall is set to close as soon as this week, according to a store employee. According to Mayor Shelley Brindle, the company is closing one of its locations in Westfield, New Jersey.
Williams Sonoma’s 2021 annual report revealed that the chain closed 49 stores that year. The company’s CFO, Julie Whalen, announced plans to close 25% of Williams Sonoma’s retail fleet over the next five years.
The company, founded in California in 1956, distributes to over 60 countries through its various brands, including Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen, West Elm, Mark and Graham, and Rejuvenation.
Home furnishings retailer Williams Sonoma has announced plans to close at least two stores this month. A store located in a Whitehall, Pennsylvania, mall is set to close as soon as this week, according to a store employee. According to Mayor Shelley Brindle, the company is closing one of its locations in Westfield, New Jersey.
Williams Sonoma’s 2021 annual report revealed that the chain closed 49 stores that year. The company’s CFO, Julie Whalen, announced plans to close 25% of Williams Sonoma’s retail fleet over the next five years.
The company, founded in California in 1956, distributes to over 60 countries through its various brands, including Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen, West Elm, Mark and Graham, and Rejuvenation.
A Journey with Williams Sonoma
A group of migrants from Venezuela and Colombia were transported from Texas to California and abandoned outside a church in Sacramento, according to a rights group. The migrants had entered the United States through Texas and were then flown to California from New Mexico on a private chartered plane. The travel expenses’ circumstances remain unclear, prompting investigations by the California Department of Justice and the governor’s office to determine who paid for the transportation and whether any laws were violated.
Large chains and small businesses have been leaving San Francisco for several years, either closing permanently or relocating operations outside the city. In the case of small companies, some have left the area entirely, moving out of state or to other sites. For the last few years, for example, Walgreens has closed more stores in the city due to the massive crime within its stores. Higher-end stores have also cited break-ins and crime as primary reasons for leaving. And just within the last two months, all Amazon Go stores, Anthropologie, and several high-e In a series of statements on Monday, T-Mobile confirmed that the location was gone due to a change in store formats from flagship-style signature stores to more localized stores that moved away from the brick and mortar model.
Farewell and Appreciation
“We recently reshaped our nationwide retail strategy to take care of customers better,” said the company in a statement. “This includes plans in this area and a few others to move away from the Signature Store format in some cities to serve customers through a nearby Experience store instead. Employees have been offered roles within the company.”
Meanwhile, sources at the William-Sonoma at 340 Post said the store would close at the year’s end. Few other details were given, although it is known that Chanel bought the location last year for $63 million. More information on that closure will likely come later in the year, including what, if any, store will replace it there.
“You know, we’re just getting numb to these by this point,” Richard Wallace, who helped manage a high-end store in the Square until earlier this year, told the Globe Monday. “Every week, there seems to be another closure or two. I’m unsure how certain Williams-Sonoma is since nothing official has come out, but T-Mobile isn’t a surprise. That’s a big location. I mean, that was THE store for Apple for many years.”
Appreciating Our Williams Sonoma Family
And Union Square stores and the flagship Whole Foods store have all announced that their doors will be closing, along with multiple non-chain stores throughout the city. Less than a week ago, Nordstrom and Saks Off 5th announced the closure of 3 primary locations in the city.
While crime has been cited as the main reason for many going, high rent costs, a lack of customers coming in due to the concurrent office departure from the city, the homeless crisis keeping many away from parts of the city, and the overall decline of retail have all played a factor in the high number of businesses leaving. However, shifting business strategies and the sale of buildings disrupting tenants have been the core blame for the most recent departures.
T-Mobile’s flagship location, which had long been Apple’s main store in the city, had started to shutter last month. However, little attention had been paid to it due to T-Mobile not announcing it and customers being redirected by signs outside.
