Just private equity doing what they do. It will live on as a zombie brand for cheap crap into eternity.
Catalyst is a joint venture of Brookfield and Simon Property, both of which are shopping mall companies. Their other brands are all shopping mall fixtures. The story here isn't private equity doing the normal private equity thing, it's that shopping malls are dying.
>The bankruptcy doesn't affect Eddie Bauer stores in markets outside the U.S. and Canada.
So its physical US locations declared bankruptcy.
In retail, a certain rate of chain/brand churn is what you'd expect. If the public feels that some chain or brand is iconic, or has been around forever - that does not magically protect the underlying corporation from missing the boat on marketplace changes, or having its management go downhill, or the founder selling out to PE, or whatever.
That's true, but to me the more interesting question is: Why?
In Europe and Asia, indoor shopping malls are thriving. They're all over the place, and very popular. This place is a stone's throw from where I live, and it's always crowded: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shopping_City_Seiersberg
When I go to the US, indoor malls are either depressing ghost towns, or they're luxury-only complexes with a heavy security presence and a seemingly-intentional lack of amenities. (Like a Starbucks that only has three tables despite ample interior space, nowhere else to eat, etc.)
What's driving the weird variance in shopping patterns? Naively, I'd expect shopping malls to be more popular in the US, as Asia and Europe also tend to have "shopping districts" inside their (usually walkable) towns that often function, effectively, as open-air malls.
But I don't know the last time I was in an indoor mall. In Asia and some areas of Europe, at least, I do think you have multi-floor complexes where you have pretty good eating but that doesn't tend to be the case in the US.
As you say, there's always Amazon for a lot of things I might have bought in malls. I still want supermarkets and big box DIY stores but I don't really need to go into malls for those.
2. Brand quality went down to equivalent or less of no-name dropshipped goods in order to keep similar dollar prices for goods.
3. Cost of real estate spiked incredibly, putting even more pressure on retail margins.
4. American logistics is seriously good, in cities 24-hour delivery can be common even for small or inexpensive things.
5. Once there wasn't a quality or convenience reason to prefer the shopping mall, many were already struggling quietly, they just hadn't run out of cash yet.
6. The pandemic happened right as all these things converged, accelerated all of them, and wasn't really recoverable.
What you may be missing is how much retail shopping space the US has. It's something like 10x the sq/ft that Germany does for example. This leads to massive amount of cannibalization as trends shift. The entire mall has to be able to generate enough revenue which is much easier with luxury complexes.
So, while malls are popular, the costs of indoor air conditioning and massive competition with online shopping and strip malls between the shopper and the indoor mall make it a difficult market.
A lot of malls are basically surrounded by discount box stores like Walmart and Target, along with specialized ones like Barnes & Noble, Old Navy, Homegoods, DSW (shoes), and dozens of others at various price points. Even though walking through a mall is more arguably pleasant than driving around an arterial road and sprawling parking lots, you'll find better selection and often better prices at the box stores than the smaller mall storefronts. Sometimes you will find local independent stores setting up in malls, but I think rents make that hard.
And then thanks in part to obsolescence and disinvestment, going to the mall as an outing also doesn't really make sense anymore except as a rare novelty. The food options are typically pretty bad and overpriced by today's standards, restrooms are usually down a long and dirty hallway, etc.
We also have "open-air malls" called shotengai, which are basically shopping streets but typically with a roof installed overhead. A lot of these aren't doing so well though.
Another comment mentioned logistics in America as being very good, but they're better here. Stuff gets shipped across the country very cheaply in 2 days here, or within the metro area in a day. You can even send frozen stuff to your relatives quite cheaply. The country's small size and urban density probably has something to do with this. But in-person shopping still is doing a lot better here than in America. Personally, I think a few factors contribute: 1) homes (esp. in the city) are quite small, so people like having 3rd spaces, and malls serve this purpose (as well as shopping streets and the city in general, but when the weather is bad, people understandably don't want to wander around outside that much). In America, people can stay in their homes more easily. 2) Civility in Japan is probably best in the world, whereas in America it's really gone down the toilet. Lots of Americans I've read about dread going outside because there's so much rudeness and incivility with daily interactions with strangers, when driving, etc. Whereas in a large Japanese city, you can take the subway somewhere, go shopping, go to a restaurant, etc., and it's extremely unlikely you'll have a highly negative experience with some angry karen or MAGA-head. Even going to a cafe, restaurant, etc., you can always expect polite service, whereas in America these days, rude service seems to have become the norm. So with such a negative environment outside their doors, it makes sense that Americans wouldn't want to even go to the mall just to walk around.
They've been dying for decades. The owners have just decided to stop trying to save it and instead hollow it out and sell it all off.