Payless Shoes closes all 2,100 stores

Discount footwear retailer Payless Shoes is shuttering all business in the United States. All of the retailer's 2,100 locations in both the U.S. and Puerto Rico will close between March and May of this year, and the online store will close at some point as well.

Payless first filed for bankruptcy in April 2017, closing 400 stores at the time. It is suspected that the company might file for a second time before the end of this month.

The retailer made headlines at the end of 2018 with a marketing stunt that tricked fashion influencers into paying over 600 dollars for shoes it typically sells between 19 and 40 dollars. While Payless returned the extra money to its shoppers, its experiment intended to change perceptions of discount footwear and entice consumers to see the brand differently.

Unfortunately, the antic did not prove as successful as Payless must have hoped. According to the New York Times' insights, the retailer's demise probably came from its reliance on brick-and-mortar stores as the core of its strategy and the shuttering of many shopping malls across the country.

Payless will continue operating its stores in Latin America, as a spokesperson told CNN. Including its 2,100 U.S. locations, the retailer currently has 3,600 locations across 40 countries.