Archiver's to Close Mall of America Store, 4 others
Archiver's announced on September 27th that they are closing five additional store locations, including their flagship Mall of America store, as part of their ongoing financial difficulties that lead to the bankruptcy that was filed in April.
In addition to the Mall of America store, Archiver's is closing their Coon Rapids (MN), Gurnee (IL), Nashville (TN), and North Olmsted (OH) stores. The Mall of America store will close "mid-October" according to Archiver's, and the other locations will close on October 20th.
This round of closures will bring Archiver's down to only 33 store locations, a significant reduction after they started 2013 with 44 store locations. In February, the company's Memphis store closed, leaving the area without a scrapbook retailer. This was followed in early April by Algonquin, Fort Wayne, and South Austin closing. Two Chicago area locations were then closed in June. And now, the five additional stores are closing in October - for a total of 11 shuttered stores in 2013, 25% of their locations lost this year.
Bankruptcy records show that Archiver's met their sales goals for July and August but various factors, including heavy discounting, lead them to miss their financial goals for those months, and the company is still operating at an average net loss of over a half million dollars a month. September records have yet to be filed with the court and will be very important as they will contain the financials from Scrapfest, which is projected to help significantly.
The Mall of America store closure brings into question the future of Scrapfest, the massive scrapbooking event sponsored every September by the chain at the Mall of America and headquartered at their store in the mall. According to the company's Facebook statement on the store closures, "We’d love to keep ScrapFest going, and are looking into all of the possibilities. We’ll keep you posted as we know more."
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