Payless Stores Close: Some NP Students Disappointed, Others Won't Miss It.

By Anika LeeVan

Art by Elizabeth Thomas

The shoe store Payless is closing around the end of March because many of its stores did not have enough funding to support the store.

CNBC Online stated that Payless lost $63 million dollars in 2018 and $4 million in 2017.

Payless also closed because the company couldn’t keep up with bigger stores.

There are forty-one stores closing in Indiana, including one in LaPorte on J Street. There are no stores closing in South Bend, but there are some closing in Mishawaka.

On a poll about shoes, 28.5% of students at New Prairie High School said that they shop at Payless. One poll respondent said, “I feel like they didn’t keep the look of their store up to date. People want to shop in a modern/trendy looking store.”

Another student said , “Disappointed. It was good for cheap shoes that I would use around the house, and especially good athletic shoes and non-slip work shoes.” Most students replied with answers such as, “I don’t really care,” and “Nobody really goes there so it’s a good thing.”

Some students said that “[Payless was] a good store for people who need cheap shoes.”, and “...many families depend on those cheaper shoe stores for either young children who grow out of shoes quickly or families who need to have the cheaper options of shoes because they cannot afford the huge expense.”

The majority of students who don’t shop at Payless voted that they shop for their shoes at Nike, but Vans was a close second. New Prairie students also say that they shop at Adidas, Foot Locker, Famous Footwear and Shoe Carnival.

The students at New Prairie High School mostly think that the more popular expensive shoe stores/brands are causing the cheaper shoe stores to shut down.

However, one student said that they believe that the more expensive stores do have some part in the Payless shutdown but in addition, they think that there are bigger reason to why it’s shutting down.

Students at New Prairie High School are mostly not affected by the closing of some Payless stores because they feel that Payless is out of date and not trendy.