Frugal Fannie's Closes Its Last Store After 43 Years, and Takes New England's Best-Kept Secret With It
The Westwood, Massachusetts discount fashion warehouse started its going-out-of-business sale this week, ending a four-decade run that survived one bankruptcy but not an expiring lease.
Frugal Fannie's Fashion Warehouse started marking down its Westwood, Massachusetts store even further this week, the first step in a liquidation sale that closes out 43 years of off-price shopping outside Boston. Owners Kathleen and Orrin Doxer cited health considerations, key staff retirements, and a lease with no option to renew, a quieter ending than the one the discount chain almost had in 2003, when it survived a Chapter 11 filing.
Frugal Fannie's built its following the old-fashioned way, with an ever-changing warehouse floor of designer overstock at steep markdowns, the kind of format that Marshalls and TJ Maxx turned into national chains while independents like this one stayed regional and beloved. SB360 Capital Partners is running the wind-down now, with signage promising deals "even deeper" than the store's already-discounted everyday prices.
The closure is a reminder that off-price retail's biggest threat these days is not Amazon, it is succession: a business built around one family's eye for a deal does not automatically outlive that family's interest in running it, lease or no lease.
Source: Yahoo Finance
Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →
