Footwear chain shutters more than 150 stores as mall traffic shifts

The communicative that malls are dying isn’t wholly true, but retailers are inactive closing stores arsenic buying shifts make a widening spread betwixt winners and losers.

Store closures are nary longer conscionable a motion of retail weakness. They’re progressively a strategical determination astir which malls are worthy staying successful and which are nary longer viable.

"Traffic to malls accrued successful Q1 2026 crossed each 3 formats analyzed — indoor malls, open-air buying centers, and outlet malls — mostly acknowledgment to beardown performances successful the archetypal 2 months of the year, according to Placer.ai's March 2026 Mall Index.

That's the wide trend, but it does not archer the afloat communicative astir the authorities of malls.

"The American promenade is not dying — it's dividing... Yet this header obscures a much nuanced reality: Premier buying centers with luxury tenants and experiential offerings are flourishing, portion lower-tier properties conflict to survive," according to Coldwell Banker Commercial.

That's a concern astute retailers understand, which has forced immoderate pugnacious decisions connected store locations. Genesco, the proprietor of Journeys, a traditionally mall-based sneaker and footwear retailer, has been closing stores arsenic portion of a broader program to code the changing quality of malls.

Genesco has been moving to displacement its store beingness since precocious 2023.

"Amid declining sales, Genesco is shifting the store beingness of Journeys distant from malls," RetailDive reported.

The Company closed 94 Journeys stores successful Fiscal 2024 and is targeting up to 50 much closures successful Fiscal 2025, according to its fourth-quarter 2024 net release.

Genesco CEO Mimi Vaughn called the concern astatine Journeys a turnaround.

"Given our beardown way grounds of turning businesses astir successful challenging times, an adjacent greater telephone to enactment to accelerate the gait of Journeys betterment and initiatives already underway, we are good positioned to unlock Journeys’ sizeable net imaginable and value,” she said successful the call.

The shutdowns person continued into 2026 with 15 stores closing this year, according to Women's Wear Daily.

Vaughn thinks that Journeys' revival has progressed well.

"We person been truly pleased by Journeys' maturation and show implicit the past mates of years, and I'll conscionable instrumentality you backmost and accidental that this is our archetypal afloat twelvemonth of the Journeys' turnaround. And truthful erstwhile you look to spot wherever comps person been, we accrued comps by 6% successful fiscal '25 and past followed by 9% successful fiscal '26," she said during Genesco's fourth-quarter 2026 net call.