U.S. Factory Outlets will not reopen

Some of you may have read the story in Wednesday’s edition about the sudden closing of U.S. Factory Outlets at Three Star Mall. After notifying its employees on a Friday, the store closed the next night.

When I talked to CEO Fred Raiff on Monday, he said there was a chance the chain could be purchased by another company and reopened at a later date. There was also the chance it could reopen briefly for a massive inventory reduction sale.

Neither of those options will happen as it is now official the store is closed and it will not reopen. The sudden closing means the mall once again has one of its biggest spaces without a tenant. Of course I could argue U.S. Factory Outlets wasn’t much of a tenant because I don’t know anybody who ever shopped there.

When I asked mall representative Susie Griffith about possible new tenants, she said there really isn’t an abundance of interest.

“We found when Kmart left, we’re not big enough to get stores like Hobby Lobby or Target,” said Susie. “We called and they won’t even talk to us. They say Warren County’s population isn’t big enough.”

When I talked to J’s owner Jean-Claude Petit on Friday, he told me every store in the mall would benefit from the addition of another big-name store.

“The busiest I’ve ever been was the last few months before Kmart went out of business,” said Jean Claude. “When Kmart was having those 40 and 60 percent off sales, it was like Christmas every day in here. That just goes to show you what this mall could be like all the time if they got a good store to move in down there.”

To be blunt, I don’t expect a new store to locate at the mall any time soon. Neither does Susie.

“With all the factories closing down, it doesn’t look good,” she said.