Fashion Bug closes its final stores

After 70 years on the retail landscape, Fashion Bug is out of business.

The moderately-priced women’s specialty clothing chain shut the doors on its final store last week, leaving voids at several Indianapolis-area retail centers.

Those include at least four locations in Indianapolis — on East Thompson Road, West 86th Street, Kentucky Avenue and U.S. 31 — as well as sites in Plainfield, Greenfield, Noblesville and Anderson.

“Who cares?” said Britt Beemer, founder of America’s Research Group, which studies retail trends. “They were a non-player in retail.”

Beemer blames the retailer’s struggles on weak store locations. Many were in B-level strip centers.

“In this competitive environment you are either in the right store location or you’re dead,” he said.

The retailer in the past two decades has also been hit by competition from big box discount stores.

Ascena Retail Group announced it would close all 600 Fashion Bug locations in 43 states in the summer of 2012. That announcement came after Ascena acquired Fashion Bug’s parent company, Charming Shoppes, for about $900 million.

A phone call to Ascena was not immediately returned, but on Fashion Bug’s Facebook page, it thanked its customers for their decades of business.

“Goodbye, adios, au revior. No matter how you say it, it’s time for us to go,” it reads. “It’s been our pleasure to serve you.”

The page also offers a “Find a Brand for You” option that links visitors to other Ascena brands, such as Lane Bryant, Catherine’s and Maurices.