After the holiday shopping season wraps up, it's relatively typical to see some stores close up shop. But this year, something seems just a little bit different at the Maine Mall. Some heavy hitters, and longtime tenants, are gone, leaving a lot of available square footage open in Maine's largest shopping mall.

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That includes Abercrombie & Fitch, who had been a tenant at the Maine Mall for more than a decade. Abercrombie has been preparing some unique ways to stir up interest in their offerings in a changing marketplace, and the company has seen sales growth in Q3 with some of that carrying over into Q4.

In fact, according to Mackenzie Gusweiler of Abercrombie & Fitch's Corporate Communications, "In the third quarter, we delivered 28 new stores experiences globally for our customers, including 11 new stores, 5 right-sizes and 12 remodels."

Despite that, Abercrombie will no longer be in the Maine Mall. It is no longer listed on The Maine Mall directory and the Google business listing says it's "permanently closed."

According to the company's store locator, there are no Abercrombie stores in Maine, but there are three next door in New Hampshire.

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If you go past the very popular Build-A-Bear location, it may be shocking to see it looks closed. In a world where we can seemingly order anything online and have it delivered to our doorstep, Build-A-Bear offers an experience.

However, Build-A-Bear is just moving into a new location (projected for April) in the mall. It is currently at a small kiosk in the mall in the mean time.

Weirdly, the Maine Mall no longer lists the business as part of its directory, but a phone call to Build-A-Bear confirmed that it is moving to a new spot.

Other smaller stores are on the precipice of closing. That includes Things Remembered and Gymboree. Both stores have large signs stating that are going out of business and everything must go.

One other store could cause some panic. Forever 21, which is a cornerstone for the Maine Mall with its own entrance, has been closed for nearly two weeks, but it's not permanent. The store is renovating and plans to reopen in the same spot in the near future.

 

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