Updated at 5 p.m. Thursday: Clothing and home décor retailer Lands’ End will open a store in Rockville, continuing its departure from parent company Sears, according to published reports.
The store will be the first in the Washington region and second brick-and-mortar location in the state, joining one in Cockeysville which opened earlier this year. There is a Lands’ End area in the Sears at Lakeforest mall in Gaithersburg.
Lands’ End will be in the Congressional Plaza shopping center in the former Performance Bicycle Shop, the Washington Business Journal first reported.
The Congressional Plaza shopping center is owned and operated by real estate group Federal Realty Investment Trust, which declined to comment on the deal.
Representatives from Lands’ End also declined to comment since a lease has not been signed.
Sears acquired Lands’ End as a subsidiary in 2002. The company introduced its “store-within-a-store” concept in 2005, and by 2006 the company was operating in more than 100 Sears locations, but has shifted away from that business model.
“Their strategy is basically to target their customer, rather than be mired in these Sears locations, which are in these dying malls without much foot traffic to speak of,” said Asit Sharma, a consumer goods specialist at financial services company Motley Fool.
At the end of the first quarter 2019, there were 120 fewer Lands’ End shops at Sears, according to the company’s most recent earnings report. The decrease resulted in a net revenue decline of $17.9 million from Sears operations.
Parent company Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy in October 2018.
“Management is looking for open-air, promenade-type physical locations in more affluent locations, where the traditional Lands’ End customer lives,” Sharma said.
Lands’ End has added three brick-and-mortar locations in 2019, with plans to open seven to nine more this year, according to the earnings report.
The Wisconsin-based company was founded in 1963 by Gary Comer and originally sold sailboat hardware and equipment by catalog before shifting to apparel and establishing an online presence.
Charlie Wright can be reached at charlie.wright@moco360.media
