Hermitage gets a retail shuffle

Michael Roknick, The Herald, Sharon, Pa.
·2 min read

Mar. 7—HERMITAGE — There's lots of retail swapping in Hermitage.

Bath & Body Works closed its Shenango Valley Mall store. This wasn't a surprise, as the company said a couple of weeks ago it was closing about 50 of its mall stores nationwide.

This isn't a true loss for the city. The body care and fragrance store is moving just a half-mile away to Hermitage Towne Plaza.

Stocking the store could begin as early as this weekend, said workers on construction crews renovating a storefront that had housed M&M Beer.

The beer store just moved several blocks west along East State Street in the city to a stand-alone location.

Bath & Body Works' shops at Grove City Premium Outlets in Springfield Township, Niles and Boardman are still listed on the company's store locations list.

The company said it was taking the action after net sales decreased 4.6 percent in fourth quarter 2022 compared to the same period a year earlier.

Still, the loss of Bath and Body Works' Shenango Valley Mall location is another casualty of a trend that is leaving increased numbers of empty storefronts in malls.

Last August, Flicore LLC bought the mall and said it would work with Hermitage in developing the 54-acre area, which is the heart its business district, and plans to develop a mixed-use town center, which in turn is at the heart of the city's overall development plan.

Shoppers will see another change at the mall as Sephora's 15-year national contract with JCPenney expired. The beauty and cosmetics chain is moving its in-store shops to Kohl's stores. Kohl's Hermitage store expects to get Sephora's by fall, local employees said.

"The company will be adding a Sephora presence to all Kohl's stores," a Sephora representative said. But no timetable was ready for any specific store, they added.

JCPenney's is replacing the empty space left by Sephora with its own cosmetics shop — JCPenney Beauty. A sign on the enclosed construction area at the Hermitage mall said it would open "soon."

In a November 2022 interview with the Wall Street Journal JCPenney's CEO Marc Rosen said, "Sephora wasn't working for us."

The Hermitage mall lost two anchor stores — Sears and Macy's — in 2017. JCPenney is the last remaining anchor store in the mall.