The Payless Shoes store in Moore Plaza at 5425 South Padre Island Drive in Corpus Christi. The store is one of four in the Corpus Christi area, and one of 2,100 remaining Payless stores, due to close no later than the end of May. Photo by Roland Chiapoco
The four Payless Shoes stores in the Coastal Bend will be closed for business as early as the end of March or as late as the end of May. The bankrupt company announced Feb. 16 it will be closing all of its 2,100 remaining stores in the U.S. Close-out sales began Feb. 17.
Payless ShoeSource is expected to file for bankruptcy later this month.
Based in Topeka, Kansas, Payless was founded in 1956 by cousins Louis and Shaol Le Pozez. The idea was to provide affordable, self-service shoe shopping.
The chain first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017. It had 4,400 stores in more than 30 countries. Restructuring left it with 3,500 stores, eliminating more than $435 million in debt. Two Payless stores were closed in Corpus Christi at the time.
Franchise operations in Latin American will not be touched by the current bankruptcy troubles. Those stores, which employ 18,000 people, will remain open, according to a company news release.
E-commerce operations will also wind down as stores nationwide begin to close.
Payless joins a growing list of national chains going out of business. Most recently, Toys R Us, Kmart, and Gymboree have all announced closures. A bankrupt Sears department store has been purchased and is reorganizing. In all, 2,187 stores have closed this year, according a report by Coresight Research, an increase of 23 percent over the closures reported last year.
The Corpus Christi stores closing are the storefront in La Palmera at 5488 South Padre Island Drive, one in Moore Plaza, also on South Padre Island Drive, and one in the Calallen area at 4101 Interstate 69. The fourth location is in Alice at 1714 E. Main St.
