Body Shop Closes All Locations in California and Across America

For most 80s and 90s kids, one of the coolest things you could do as an underage teen was meet up with your girlfriends at the mall. Unfortunately, the popularity of traditional brick and mortar malls has faded considerably.

While it’s easy to blame the ease and popularity of online shopping, there are a multitude of factors that landed malls in the difficult situation they’re in. While many malls still have great facilities, there are many mall-based retailers that have gone under nationwide. Those companies chose to liquidate and close all of their locations, even if the mall they were located in still had decent foot traffic. With fewer tenants, there’s less money in the bank to keep up with maintenance costs.

The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help. When malls reopened, shoppers got frustrated with standing in line to even enter the store due to occupancy limits and were annoyed with dressing rooms being closed for an extended amount of time. After all, one of the reasons to choose a mall store over an online retailer is the ability to try on your clothes before you make a decision whether or not to buy the item.

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As foot traffic continues to slow, more and more mall based retailers are hanging it up for good. The latest retailer to call it quits is the UK-based “The Body Shop.” According to a report from CNN, the bath and body company has filed for bankruptcy and immediately closed all of its remaining United States locations.

The company has changed ownership a handful of times since it was founded in 1976. Well known cosmetic company L'Oréal operated it for 11 years from 2006-2017. It was sold to a Brazilian company after that.

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The Body Shop exited Boise Towne Square Mall during the COVID-19 pandemic during the summer of 2020. However, they did still have stores open in California, Washington State and Utah in 2024 until the recent announcement. One of the locations that was still open in our region was at Fashion Place Mall in Murray, Utah which is owned by Brookfield Properties, the same company that owns Boise Towne Square Mall. It’s been delisted from the mall’s directory.

A location at Fashion Fair Mall in Fresno, California still appears on the mall’s directory but is listed as “permanently closed” on Google.

The company press release only listed liquidation sales for locations in Canada. It says it immediately closed ALL of its US locations as of March 1. In addition to the Murray and Fresno locations, the closures included any remaining locations in Washington State and California.