The announcement came in today – VS will be closing about 50 stores, mostly underperforming stores and many had year-over-year declines. 50 stores is a lot for any company so it’ll be a big hit. People have difficult time with VS nowadays, the old model and marketing with top models and airbrushed models does not fly any more – there is a ton of competition that’s pushing into this space and this leaves Victoria’s Secret in a really bad position.
Now, we’ll see what happens in 2019 but I’d say many stores will close and there is going to be a ton of layoffs on the Corporate side (L Brands) as well as on the store laves – so, stores will close, corporate headcount will go down. People are asking here if there is a list of stores that will close – based on the call the company had today, they will not be disclosing anything here – we will not know what stores will be closed for a while.
Last year (2018), Victoria’s Secret closed about 30 stores, this year 50, I think it was about 20 in 2017, you see the trend here. No matter what happens, the company is in a bind as younger folks are not sticking to the brand and the older ones are moving to other brands – so, keep airbrushing and it’ll take you nowhere.