A spokesperson for Hollister confirmed on Friday its store in the Prien Lake Mall is officially closing today, Saturday, Jan. 19, “as part of the company’s ongoing optimization of its stores fleet.”

“We put the customer at the center of everything we do, and we are constantly evaluating our stores and our digital storefront to ensure we are meeting our customers’ needs,” Mackenzie Gusweiler said in the statement. “Sometimes that involves relocating or, as in this case, closing a store.”

The statement said “this fleet rightsizing journey is one we’ve been on for a while — by the end of our fiscal year 2018, we will have closed approximately 450 stores since 2010. Our local customers will still be able to engage with our brands online, on our website or through our award-winning apps.”

On Thursday, a woman who identified herself as an assistant manager at Hollister in the Prien Lake Mall, told the American Press in a phone interview the store was closing its doors because of “shoplifting and assaults on employees.”

“We have had a manager be pushed up against a wall, another manager get beaten up, and another employee who got maced; all of this by shoplifters,” she said. “Sometimes, if we tried to confront a shoplifter, they would turn on us and say it was a race issue and that we were just discriminating against them. The shoplifting became so prevalent and they got so bold about it that it became a huge safety issue for us.”

The employee said she and other employees had pressed for more security over the last year or so but that they never received additional security from Hollister and that the store didn’t have cameras or surveillance.

“Basically, shoplifters could just come in and steal from us and walk right out of the store with the merchandise,” she said. “We have lost so much money because of thefts that the decision was made by our corporate office to close our location.”

She said Hollister personnel were told by mall security that “they could not step inside our store if there was a safety concern. We were on our own. They told us that, with shoplifters, the most they could do is simply tell them to leave.”

Nikki Buxton, director of marketing and business development at Prien Lake Mall, said, “We’re sad to see Hollister go. But that’s their company decision.”

Regarding issues mentioned by the Hollister employee, such as security guards from Prien Lake Mall not being able to enter their store or respond during shoplifting incidents, Buxton said, “We have to honor whatever a store’s specific policy is. We lease the space to stores and we have to abide by whatever each store’s policy is.”

Asked to comment on how mall security responds to certain situations, Buxton said she could not answer specific security questions because “that could put our own security staff at risk.”Doors Closing.png