Posted Friday, July 7, 2017 12:00 am

Young adult store rue21 in the Jasper Mall is the latest retailer to announce its closing in Jasper, but local officials say the city and county remains attractive for potential businesses — and that the Jasper Mall is well positioned for survival. Employees at the rue21 in Jasper were asked by their corporate office not to comment on the store’s closing, but would confirm the store will be open through the end of September. Currently the store is slashing prices between 20 and 40 percent. The store in Jasper is one of 400 rue21 stores set to close across the country, due to the company filing for bankruptcy protection in May. A press release from rue21 in May states, “The restructuring is an important step forward in rue21’s ongoing business transformation into a more focused and highly performing retailer. Last month, the company began the process of closing approximately 400 underperforming stores in its 1,179-store fleet in order to streamline operations, better align the size of its footprint with market realities and focus on its hundreds of highly performing locations.” The release also said rue21 “may evaluate additional store closings as it continues to manage its real estate lease portfolio.” Many national retailers are struggling, and rue21 is one of over 20 companies seeking bankruptcy court protection this year, according to Fortune. Industry experts have cited a changing retail climate as the downfall for many companies, with consumers shopping more online and through online retailer Amazon. Jasper Mayor David O’Mary said Thursday malls across the country are suffering due to new shopping trends, as stand-alone retailers are gaining in popularity. “I was watching the national news yesterday, and they were talking about how malls across the country are trying to reconfigure their facilities and really fighting for survival. Apparently, it’s just an outdated concept of delivering retail services, and certainly Jasper is not immune to that,” O’Mary said. Recent casualties of the Jasper Mall include Kmart, which closed its doors in March, along with the mall’s Chick-fil-A. JCPenney announced their closing in March and will close by the end of this month, leaving Belk as the mall’s surviving anchor store.

The Jasper Mall is now in receivership by Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc. (JLL), who will manage the mall and be responsible for leasing. The mall’s new manager is JLL’s Angie McClelland. O’Mary and Chamber of Commerce of Walker County President Linda Lewis met with JLL recently, and both say the meeting was positive. “It was a good meeting,” Lewis said. “When we sat down and met with JLL, they said that Walker County has a strong retail market.” McClelland, the mall’s new manager, declined to comment on the closing of rue21 or the future of the mall, but Lewis and O’Mary said stores closing in the Jasper Mall are not a reflection of the mall’s performance, but rather the reconfiguration of national companies accommodating to a changing retail industry. “What I know in talking with the folks at the mall is they have a very good team with tremendous experience in doing just what they’re doing here,” O’Mary said. “They’ve had some top retail recruiters in that they know what sort of retail entities would fit in a market our size. I think we’re as well positioned as we could be at this point for the mall to survive. Where we will be in a year, two years down the road, nobody knows, but I’m confident that we’re well positioned to have a chance of our mall surviving.” Lewis said the city and county have benefited in the past few years from national companies opening their doors in the area, including the new Badcock furniture store, Planet Fitness, Waffle House, Sleep Inn, Holiday Inn Express and more. “Even though you have some of these national retailers that are closing their doors, we still have other retail opportunities coming our way,” Lewis said. “We are working with the mall to help identify other retailers that may fit this market. ... I do see new retail growth in the near future.” Outside of the city of Jasper, smaller communities are also seeing retail growth. Two examples include the new Dollar General in Goodsprings — the first and only national retailer in that town — and a business from outside the community of Oakman is exploring the possibility of locating in the town. O’Mary said the city plans to announce another stand-alone retailer to join the Jasper community. “I’m confident that within the next two weeks we’ll be able to make an announcement that will be well received by this community,” he said.