On Sept. 29, beloved retail store Forever 21 announced its closing after announcing plans to file for bankruptcy. In total, 350 stores in 40 different countries will be closing, 178 of which are in the United States.
Forever 21 was originally started in 1984 by South Korean immigrants, Jin Sook and Do Wan “Don” Chang. After living in America for three years and with $11,000 in their bank accounts, the two soon opened up their own business. They bought merchandise from manufacturers during wholesale closeouts at discount and made $700,000 during their first year. Eventually the store gained attraction from all Americans, not just LA’s Korean-American community. The little clothing company grew and made $4.4 million in revenue at its peak.
Since 2017, American retail stores such as Sears, Toys R Us, Mattress Firm and Payless have been shutting down in what the media has labeled as “The retail apocalypse.” Why is this?
“It was a bit surprising, but I think online shopping is a big factor,” said Hannah Rousch, a freshman journalism major.
Amazon, SHEIN, ROMWE, Urban Outfitters, Target and several other retailers have either opened up online shopping or become exclusively online retail stores. Forever 21 was originally a brick-and-mortar store and never completely shifted its focus to being an online site. This has given Forever 21 a lot of competition, as the store’s primary focus has always been malls and outlets.
There were big plans for Forever 21. By 2017, Jin Sook and Do Wan Chang planned for Forever 21 to become an $8 billion company. They hoped to open 600 new stores in three years. Soon after Forever 21 became incorporated, Jin Sook began to approve of more and more designs, approving at least 400 each day. This, combined with the store’s aggressive expansion, is what caused the store’s styles to become more cookie-cutter.
“I kind of like Forever 21 because they’re cheap, but yeah, the ‘weird random 2013 depressed teen’ writing is excessive,” said Tenaya Ramahdan, a freshman biology major at St. Bonaventure.
Aside from the styles, the quality of Forever 21’s clothes has only ever been reported as decent by customers. This is evident in consumeraffairs.com’s rating of 3.5 stars. This leaves a combination of the increase in online shopping and awkward prints as the cause for the store’s downfall.
The company is $500 million in debt. While it is possible for Forever 21 to bounce back, it certainly will be hard.
Due to the retail apocalypse, 15,000 retail stores have already closed down in America alone. 75,000 stores around the world have closed down. The company’s plans for aggressive extension will have to wait a very long time.
Chang is quoted to have said that the name Forever 21 was chosen for the company because he and Jin want their customers to feel youthful in the clothing they get from their store. This goal once proved true, as customer studies report that 40% of Forever 21’s shoppers are between the ages of 25 to 40. This retail apocalypse may give Forever 21 time to rebrand themselves, but it also very well may be the end of forever.
By Grace Usala, Staff Writer
usalagc19@bonaventure.edu
