Yankee Candle will close its store at the Bangor Mall on Jan. 25, a mall spokesperson said Thursday.
The store has provided scores of scented candles to shoppers for nearly 21 years, having opened at the mall in March 2000. The nearest Yankee Candle for Bangor residents will now be about 93 miles away in Freeport.
The only other Maine locations are at the Maine Mall in South Portland and The Maine Outlet Shopping Center in Kittery.
The Bangor Mall has lost many of its stores in recent years, with the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic only further hurting the shopping complex that was already suffering amid the growth of online shopping. In August, the mall saw its Victoria’s Secret outlet shut down as part of a broader closure of 250 stores nationwide. The mall has also lost some of its anchor tenants in recent years, as the Macy’s and Sears department stores closed their doors.
In April 2019, the mall sold for $12.6 million to three real estate investors based in Great Neck, New York, located on Long Island. The mall’s previous owners had defaulted on an $80 million loan 18 months before.
Yankee Candle, which is based in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, has more than 475 retail stores across the United States, according to its website. Numerous other retailers sell the company’s trademark candles.
The candle company is one of many retail chains hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused declining rates of in-person shopping amid coronavirus restrictions and job losses. In June, the retailer announced that it was scaling back its fundraising efforts and laying off an unspecified number of employees due to losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is unclear if the closure at Bangor Mall is part of a more comprehensive set of closures, though locations in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Dayton, Ohio, metro area are also scheduled to close this month.
A spokesperson for Yankee Candle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.