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The Children's Place is closing 300 stores across the U.S. and Canada permanently.
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The Children's Place Is Closing 300 Stores & Liquidation Sales Could Start Soon

The coronavirus pandemic has left many brick-and-mortar businesses struggling in recent months, including The Children's Place, which is permanently closing 300 stores across the country. In the process, the company will offer a massive liquidation sale that's set to start soon.

Last Thursday, The Children's Place released its first quarter financial report, which noted that the company saw a significant loss in earnings. Enough that president and CEO Jane Elfers explained in a news release that the company is "now targeting to close an additional 300 stores by the end of fiscal 2021, with 200 closures planned for this year, and 100 closures planned for 2021." At this point, there are 920 brick-and-mortar locations throughout the United States and Canada.

While The Children's Place, which also acquired Gymboree in October 2019 after the company filed for bankruptcy, has seen "approximately 95%" of its brick-and-mortar stores closed during the coronavirus pandemic, the uptick in online sales has been dramatic. According to the company, The Children's Place saw a 300% increase in online sales. As such, the children's retailer plans to focus the majority of its sales through online retail moving forward.

"We believe that our superior product, coupled with our unique ability, at this critical juncture, to significantly grow digital revenue, while meaningfully reducing our reliance on our store portfolio, will result in consolidated market share gains for years to come," Elfers said.

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For those looking for sales in kids' clothing, The Children's Place said that it plans to have the majority of its store reopened by July 1 "on a phased timeline" and company chief financial officer Mike Scarpa reportedly explained in a conference call that it's planning to hold liquidation sales in 50 stores "within the next six weeks," according to Fox 13. No word yet on which stores will hold those sales.

"We expect that a good portion of them will open and liquidate and then will close, depending on the inventories that are left in the store," Scarpa said, according to Fox 13.

For those people who don't want to wait for in-store sales, The Children's Place is offering a massive online sale right now, with up to 80% off styles for summer.