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The store in Farmers Park is scheduled to close Dec. 28.
Photo courtesy Farmers Park
The store in Farmers Park is scheduled to close Dec. 28.

Five Pound Apparel closing south-side store

Posted online

Clothing and home accessories retailer Five Pound Apparel LLC is shuttering its Farmers Park south-side store.

Company officials announced the Dec. 28 closure date in a Facebook post yesterday.

Co-owner Brina Thomas said via email this morning the company's plan for the past two years has been to consolidate the south-side store into its original downtown location.

"The pandemic only confirmed that we were making the right move for our brand," she said when asked if the coronavirus was a deciding factor in the Farmers Park closure.

The Facebook post indicated Five Pound Apparel's 412 South Ave. store downtown would be closed to foot traffic in January for planned renovations. Online sales will continue, according to the post.

For Springfield Business Journal's Dec. 21 Economic Growth Survey issue, Thomas said the company is planning a greater shift to e-commerce. She said digital sales are up 350% this year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"We never plan to fully go online and (not) have a physical store," she said in the article. "We feel the in-store experience is so important for retail.

"It definitely will for us be shifting that balance, making sure we have the majority of our products online but still having unique items that you can't find online."

Five Pound Apparel's Farmers Park store opened in 2014. Thomas and her husband, Ben, purchased the business in 2017 from Bryan Simpson, according to past reporting. The company was founded in 2010.

Five Pound is the latest retailer to exit Farmers Park, following clothing retailer Staxx and children’s boutique Jellybeans last year. Officials with Farmers Park developer Green Circle Projects LLC have said residential and office tenants are the primary revenue drivers.

“As Farmers Park has moved to more of a service-based property, we felt that we no longer fit the vision,” Thomas said via email.

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