Papyrus Closing All Stores, Including at Pentagon City Mall

[mahatmakanejeeves]

My mom used to buy her Christmas cards from Papyrus.

Papyrus Closing All Stores, Including at Pentagon City Mall
ARLnow.com Today at 1:45pm

(Updated at 2:15 p.m.) Greeting card and stationery store Papyrus is expected to close soon at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, the latest victim of a brutal business environment for bricks-and-mortar retailers.

The parent company of Papyrus is closing all of its more than 250 stores, news outlets reported last week, and a liquidation firm has been hired to help the chain sell off its remaining merchandise. It’s unclear when exactly the stores will close.

A 20% off sign could be seen in the Pentagon City store Tuesday afternoon.

The closure comes as Amazon, the biggest force behind shoppers shifting their spending from physical stores to e-commerce, moves into its second headquarters a few blocks away.

Greeting card shops are something of an endangered species, particularly in Arlington. A Hallmark store closed at Pentagon Row in 2012. Among greeting card purveyors that are still open, recent Ballston Quarter arrival Steadfast Supply has greeting cards and stationery, while a Hallmark store in Alexandria, near Fairlington, remains in business (despite this incident in 2016).

[redstatebluegirl]

1. I love their cards.

I have found that young people don't send cards anymore. The only people I get Christmas cards or birthday cards from are people my age. I guess they text their cards or something . I have saved a lot of cards over the years. i have all of the ones my husband has given me over 25 years and also have all of the ones given to me by students over the years.

Sad to see this tradition die.

[Warpy]

2. Just one more symptom of the deep systemic problem this country has

Retail is dying. The major media want to blame Amazon, but that's not the problem and more than Sears Roebuck & Co. was during the buildup to the Great Depression.

What's killing retail is what's killing us--depressed wages with wealth concentration Who shops? Nobody's got the kind of money it takes to spend a day at the mall, eating in the food court, and going home with bags.

Five years ago, strip malls on my side of town looked like meth mouth with all the empty store fronts. Now they're being bulldozed.

But hey, everybody, look at that Dow go!try on the planet.