IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Wet Seal, a leading specialty retailer for young women, recently announced the closing of 338 stores nationwide.
The company axe, however, didn’t fall in Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
Officials with all seven Wet Seal stores in the Inland region – in Redlands, Moreno Valley, Temecula, Ontario, San Bernardino, Riverside and Corona – say they’re still in business with no plans to close, at least not anytime soon.
Nearly 3,700 full and part-time employees lost their jobs because of the store closings, which left Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal with approximately 173 stores and its Internet business, according to a company statement.
Company officials decided to close the stores after failing to secure major concessions from some of its landlords. The closed stores accounted for nearly 50 percent of the company’s net sales for the nine months preceding Nov. 1, 2014, according to the statement.
“Our financial condition leaves us no other alternative than to close these stores,” said Ed Thomas, the company’s chief executive officer, in a statement. “This is an extremely difficult time … we are doing everything we can to protect the interests of all of our stakeholders, including our employees.”
Officials at Moreno Valley Mall were pleased when they learned their Wet Seal store would remain open, said Katie Schuman, who is in charge of the malls specialty leasing.
“They’ve been with us since the late 1990s,” Schuman said of Wet Seal, which occupies a 5,900-square-foot store on Moreno Valley Mall’s lower level. “They’re a good tenant, and we don’t want them go anywhere.”
Wet Seal operated 32 stores in California before the store closings were announced, according to the company’s website.
Company officials, who have not released a list of shuttered store locations, did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment.
