Disney Closes 2 Maryland Stores, 60 Nationwide Shut Down

MARYLAND — In a move to focus on online business and significantly reduce its brick-and-mortar footprint, Disney has closed at least 60 stores in North America this month. That includes two locations in Maryland.

The entertainment company announced the Disney store closings on March 3, and the shutdowns were completed March 24. USAToday reported the Disney closures add up to about one-third of the stores in North America; the corporation has about 300 stores worldwide.

California will see the most locations shut down with nine closings and seven in Texas are shuttered, USA Today said. Nationwide, Disney stores in 16 states closed.

The newspaper reported these Maryland closings:

• Baltimore: White Marsh Mall, 8200 Perry Hall Blvd.
• Hanover: Arundel Mills, 7000 Arundel Mills Circle

Disney's website lists Maryland stores at the Baltimore White Marsh location, Clarksburg and Arundel Mills mill in Hanover. Only the Clarksburg store is still listed as open.

More than 600 Disney Parks stores and other locations, including Disney stores inside Target stores, are not affected by these closures.

“While consumer behavior has shifted toward online shopping, the global pandemic has changed what consumers expect from a retailer,” said Stephanie Young, president, Consumer Products Games and Publishing at Disney, in a statement. “Over the past few years, we’ve been focused on meeting consumers where they are already spending their time, such as the expansion of Disney store shop-in-shops around the world. We now plan to create a more flexible, interconnected ecommerce experience that gives consumers easy access to unique, high-quality products across all our franchises.”

Even before stores were shut down by the coronavirus, traditional brick-and-mortar establishments were losing revenue and customers to e-commerce giants like Amazon, Target and Walmart.

And store closings are ramping up in the first quarter of 2021, even as some states loosen coronavirus restrictions and shoppers head back to malls. Victoria's Secret, Best Buy, Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond and J.C. Penney have all said they will close stores this year, USA Today reported.

As the coronavirus outbreak began to take hold in March 2020, some businesses closed in Maryland as retailers saw consumers shift to online purchases to avoid potential exposure to the virus.

The Disney Store closures are the latest national retailer to shut down some locations in Maryland. Macy's plans to close three dozen stores nationwide in 2021, including the Marlow Heights location in Prince George's County.

The Maryland Department of Labor reported 81 employees were out of work by March 14 when the Macy's store closed.

Here is a list of some of the stores in Maryland that closed last year.

Catherine's: The affordable plus-sized clothing retailer for women announced it was shuttering all stores after parent company, Ascena, filed for bankruptcy in July. Maryland had four Catherine's stores: Capitol Heights, Glen Burnie, Waldorf and Windsor Mill.

Lord & Taylor: The department store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in August. Lord & Taylor, which traces its roots to 1826, closed 37 stores, including at The Mall in Columbia and White Flint Mall in Kensington.

Modell's Sporting Goods: The family-owned sporting goods retailer shuttered all its stores after declaring bankruptcy in March. Among the 115 stores were nine in Maryland: Annapolis, Arundel Mills, Baltimore, Bethesda, Capitol Heights, Greenbelt, Germantown, Parkville and Waldorf.

Papyrus: The greeting card chain's 260 stores entered liquidation in January. Five stores in Maryland closed: Annapolis (1730 Annapolis Mall); Bethesda (7101 Democracy Blvd., Montgomery Mall); Chevy Chase (5457 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase Center), Columbia (10300 Little Patuxent Pkwy., The Mall in Columbia); and Towson (825 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson Town Center).

Pier 1: The home furnishings chain in May announced plans to shutter all of its 541 stores. The company said it would reopen its stores after the pandemic but only long enough to sell off its inventory.

Some MD Stores Close As Chains Scale Back

Bar Louie: The chain gastro pub filed for bankruptcy in January, closing 38 restaurants across the country, including its Owings Mills, Rockville and Wheaton locations.

Bed, Bath & Beyond: Three stores in Maryland closed in 2020: Gaithersburg (558 N. Frederick Avenue), Hanover (7000 Arundel Mills Circle) and Salisbury (2653 N. Salisbury Boulevard). The Nottingham Square store (5210 Campbell Boulevard) closed in January 2021, according to the Maryland Department of Labor.

Brooks Brothers: The 200-year-old menswear retailer filed for bankruptcy and was purchased in September by mall operator Simon Property Group, which also now co-owns J.C. Penney. Simon plans to keep about 125 stores in the chain operating; Brooks Brothers had about 425 stores before the pandemic. The outlet store in Hagerstown closed.

Francesca's: At the end of 2020, the boutique announced it was closing 140 locations nationwide after filing chapter 11 bankruptcy, including one in Bethesda Row, which shuttered in January.

GNC: The supplement chain filed for bankruptcy in June and announced plans to close 800 to 1,200 stores nationwide, including three in Maryland: Brandywine, Gaithersburg and Waldorf.

J.C. Penney: The department store shuttered three locations in Maryland: Abingdon (3411 Merchant Blvd., Boulevard at Box Hill); Lanham (9100 McHugh Dr., Woodmore Towne Center); and La Vale (1262 Vocke Rd., Country Club Mall).

Jos. A. Banks and Men's Wearhouse: Tailored Brands, which also the two men's fashion retailers, let go of 100 stores it identified as underperforming when it filed for bankruptcy in August. These included three in Maryland: Jos. A Bank stores in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, Gaithersburg, Rockville and Severna Park as well as the Men's Wearhouse in Towson Town Center.

Justice: The chain announced plans to shutter more than 75 percent of its stores, after the parents company of the tween-focused apparel chain for girls ages 6 to 12, Ascena, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July. In the shop's final week of liquidation, all inventory was priced under $10. Ten stores in Maryland closed, including sites in Annapolis, Bel Air, Columbia, Gambrills and Glen Burnie.

Macy's: The department store chain closed one store — The Centre at Salisbury —after in early February announcing plans to close 28 stores over the next three years, around a fifth of its brick-and-mortar footprint.

Nordstrom: The department store chain in May announced it would close 16 of its 116 full-line stores after the coronavirus accelerated market trends pushing more shoppers online. The Annapolis Mall store reportedly closed in August.

Sears: Five stores shuttered in Maryland last year as the company sought to reduce its brick-and-mortar footprint. Three closed by April: Sears at Westfield Annapolis, Sears at White Marsh Mall and Sears at St. Charles Towne Center in Waldorf. Two stores — Harford Mall Sears in Bel Air and the Cumberland Sears — closed by the end of February 2020.

Sur La Table: The upscale kitchenware chain closed roughly half of its 120 stores nationwide after filing for bankruptcy in July, citing the pandemic as the reason. The location at Towson Town Center closed.

Tuesday Morning: The home goods retailer filed for bankruptcy in May and announced the closure of 132 stores nationally, including in Towson, Glen Burnie and Salisbury.

A record 9,300-plus store closings were announced in 2019, and that number could be even higher in 2020, according to a report by Business Insider.

Retail analyst firm Coresight Research estimated 8,736 businesses shuttered in 2020 nationwide.

See Also:

• 5 Chain Stores In Maryland We Said Goodbye To In 2020