Carter’s Is Closing 150 Stores + Cutting 300 Jobs by Year’s End
If you love shopping Carter’s or OshKosh B’gosh for your little ones, heads up! Earlier this week, Carter’s announced that it plans to close 150 “low-margin” stores and cut about 300 office jobs by the end of the year.
During an October 27th call, company leaders explained that higher costs from tariffs have squeezed profits, leading to the decision.
Carter’s hasn’t shared which specific stores are closing just yet, but execs said it could take up to three years to finish all 150 closures. Most will happen as store leases end, with around 100 stores expected to be closed by 2026.
Executive Vice President and CFO Richard Westenberger said that the company will continue to monitor tariff levels and the “considerable impact they have begun to have on our business.”
“As we all know now, over the past number of months, significantly higher tariffs have been implemented affecting imports from almost every country, including those from which we source the majority of our products.”
Most of Carter’s products come from overseas, so the company is now considering a change in its production locations to offset the higher costs. Carter’s is also suspending new openings of US locations, along with plans to reduce its product offerings by 20-30%.
Company executives also discussed passing some of the increased costs along to suppliers and, unfortunately, shoppers too. This is definitely not what we want to hear, especially after already watching Carter’s prices steadily increase over the past few years.
The retailer hopes that all these measures will be enough to improve its financial performance in the face of ongoing economic uncertainty.
Their clothes are too expensive. And they don’t keep up with the current trends. I haven’t gone into a carters/oshkosh in a decade. I foresee children’s place will be next. Target and Walmart are still pretty affordable for kids clothing. And they keep up with the current trending styles.