Forever 21 and Bluenotes Closing at Polo Park, Thrifty's Opening

Summer is when many malls start making changes so that everything is in place for the fall/winter season when school starts and Christmas shopping begins. Forever 21's American owners closed all their Canadian in 2019 stores despite their success in Canada to help their bankrupt U.S. stores. Even though Canadian owners took over the name and operations in 2021, the Covid years hurt retail for some time and changed shopping patterns. Even today, some shoppers were unaware that Forever 21 had returned. The Polo Park shop is a massive 37,000 square feet so the closure was something that is not easily filled. The first time it happened was when a flurry of closures in retail were happening.

And so Forever 21 is again closing their big store but at least there is a retailer in the wings waiting to take on 35 of their employees and add more. Thrifty's is returning to Winnipeg after closing their last store at Outlet Collection four years ago. Thrifty's thought their old name was losing lustre so many were converted to Bluenotes. More big retailers have a few nameplates to sell from. Forever 21's, owner also owns Urban Planet and that is still doing well.

The closure of Bluenotes at Polo Park is simply a transfer of those 20 employees and brands to the supersized Thrifty's. On July 12 Forever 21 will close and July 22 Thrifty's will open. The old Bluenotes should have no problem being filled as Polo Park remains one of the top 10 malls in the country. There are still no announced plans for the old Bay though. The size and score of that requires some real investment and innovation. There are no department stores about to take over.

Many malls are being upgraded at the moment. Polo Park has seen many changes. Victoria Secret's 12,700 is going through a complete upgrade. Body Shop is moving upstairs. Other changes and upgrades are expected. Will Forever 21 come back? You can never be too sure. Four years ago it seemed unlikely Thrifty's would be back. Generation Z and Generation Alpha seem to be driving mall renewal and interest.