H&M at McAllister Place will close its doors on March 25. But the company itself is not going out of business.
As the McAllister H&M shuts down, there will not be any sales on its merchandise. Instead, the clothing retailer plans to redistribute its stock to the other H&M Maritime locations, according to store staff.
This is unlike the fate of A Children’s Place in the same mall earlier this year, which saw significant sales on merchandise before it closed.
Huddle is not aware of any plans from H&M to close the other Atlantic Canadian stores in St. John’s, Charlottetown, Dartmouth, Halifax, or Dieppe.
It’s unclear what will fill the significant space H&M occupies at McAllister Place once the retailer is gone.
The Swedish fashion chain announced in early 2022 it would be closing 240 stores worldwide while opening about 95 new locations in emerging markets like South America and eastern Europe.
The war in Ukraine took an unforeseen toll on the company, as four per cent of its sales come from the Russian market, which it stopped serving in response to the ongoing conflict there.
Russia was the company’s sixth biggest market, Yahoo News reports.
The company also drew the ire of China in 2022 due to its criticism of cotton-sourcing practices in that country. That market was also one of its biggest worldwide.
In January the retailer shut down two of its three stores in downtown Toronto, leaving only the CF Toronto Eaton Centre location untouched.
Alex Graham is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
