Another mall retailer quietly closes 7 stores, plans more

Walk into any suburban shopping mall on a Tuesday, and it’s easy to adopt a widespread belief that the American mall is dead. However, behind the closed storefronts and half-empty parking lots lies a different narrative: retail splitting.

Industry data reveals a massive visitor gap between tiers. While smaller malls lose leading retailers, the largest show resilience.

According to a Cushman & Wakefield report citing Green Street data, Class A properties sit just 4% below pre-pandemic traffic benchmarks, while B malls lag with a 9% drop. Occupancy follows a similar trend, boasting 95% at the top tier, 89% in the middle, and plunging to 72% for C-rated malls and below.

It’s a trajectory that The Wall Street Journal retail reporter Kate King warned of, noting that "hundreds of low-end malls across the U.S. have either closed or are slowly dying" as department stores pull their anchors.

Legacy chains like Macy’s, JCPenney, and Forever 21 have undergone massive footprint downsizings, fracturing traditional mall-tenant dynamics. Earlier this year, iconic brands like Banana Republic, Tommy Bahama, and Madewell quietly exited the Towson Town Center Mall in Maryland.

Now, yet another beloved lifestyle mall staple has confirmed it is shrinking its physical footprint, confirming seven storefront closures in the first quarter with plans to systematically shutter more before the year ends.

Fossil Group quietly closed 7 stores in the first quarter of 2026 

A legendary American fashion design and manufacturing company with headquarters in Richardson, Texas, Fossil Group, reported its fiscal first quarter earnings results on May 13.

The company known for creating, marketing, and distributing classic fashion watches, smartwatches, jewelry, and leather goods, disclosed net sales of $224.8 million, down by 3.6% on a reported basis and 6.5% in constant currency compared to the same period in 2025. Sales numbers were affected because this quarter had 13 weeks instead of last year's 14 weeks, Fossil Group noted in its press release.

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Its first quarter net loss amounted to $800,000, compared to $17.6 million in the first quarter of 2025.

During the company’s earnings call, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Randy Greben talked about the company’s recent store closures.

“During Q1, we closed 7 stores and expect to close up to 15 in total this year. This would put us at 185 locations globally at the end of 2026,” Greben said according to the earnings call transcript provided by Insider Monkey.