Fashion Bug, a fixture at Hillcrest Shopping Center since 1985, closed abruptly this week, apparently with no warning to its employees.
Merchandise and fixtures have been moved out of the store.
Danielle Potter, 20, of Lower Burrell is one of the seven salespeople who are now without jobs. She said there was no forewarning of the store closing.
"None at all, " Potter said. "They closed the store on Monday at 4 p.m. because they said we had a 'system failure.'
"One of the co-workers called me and said she went by and they had taken all the clothes off the walls."
Potter said she and some other employees went to the store Monday night to find fixtures being moved out under the direction of a regional manager and a district manager. The management people told them to return the next day to discuss the closing.
When they returned Tuesday, Potter said, "It was just basically they didn't want anyone to know because our lease was until 2010 with the owner of our building. They didn't want him to know because they didn't want him to lock the doors and keep all the merchandise inside."
From what Potter said, the closing its related to the opening of a Fashion Bug store in the Wal-Mart shopping center along Freeport Road in Natrona Heights, Harrison.
"Originally, it was supposed to be a relocation for the one in the Heights, but they could not get out of the lease and they waited until they could do this."
Attempts by the Valley News Dispatch to reach Charming Shoppes, the parent company of Fashion Bug, by e-mail and phone late Friday afternoon were unsuccessful.
Charming Shoppes, headquartered in Bensalem, also operates 2,400 women's clothing stores including Lane Bryant, Catherine's Plus Sizes and Petite Sophisticate.
According to a May 12 story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the company was coming off a record year in 2006 but its business began a sharp downturn in 2007. It was attributed, at least in part, to the economy.
Charming Shoppes' stock was selling at $12 in March 2007 but tumbled to $5 by November, according to the Inquirer. In February, the company announced it was closing 150 stores and cutting 200 jobs in a cost-savings move. By March, the company's net sales had dropped by $600 million for the year.
All of that led to a proxy fight waged by outside investors who bought up the declining shares. That finally ended at the beginning of the month, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Mara Mrvos, spokesman for J.J. Gumberg Co., the owner of Hillcrest Shopping Center, said, "I talked to one of our executives here, and he said they have a valid lease with us, and nothing has been voiced to him about leaving that center.
"As far as we know they are continuing to pay us the rent. We have no control over the operation of the store."
When asked if the owner of a store that ceases operation while under lease continues to pay on the lease, Mrvos, who has been with Gumberg for two years, replied, "I've not known that to be the case in my short tenure here."
"What really made me mad is that if it was a relocation, why couldn't they take us to the other store instead of us losing our jobs?" Potter said. "They said that they could not leave nobody working at the Lower Burrell store, so they hired new people. And with those jobs taken, there were none for us."
She described the employees and their regular customers as a tight-knit group. She said the employees took the closing hard. She said management told them they would give them good recommendations because they were all loyal employees.
"For them to close the doors on us and not give us any kind of warning, I don't know what to say," Potter said. "I'm going to put a sign up on the Fashion Bug window apologizing to the customers because I felt they should have been told."
"I honestly think they closed the wrong store, because our customers will not go up to the Heights," Potter said. "I know people who shop at our store who stopped me and they said they will not step into another Fashion Bug."
