Hallmark store on Bradley Park Drive going out of business after two-decade run
It’s the end of a greeting card era of sorts in Columbus, with the Hallmark Gold Crown store at 1627 Bradley Park Drive going out of business after a two-decade run.
The outlet, located in Bradley Park Square, a shopping center anchored by Publix and Stein Mart, will begin its liquidation sale at 10 a.m. Thursday.
“We are closing our doors at this location forever,” owners Glenda and Jim McNeil say in letters taped to the windows of the store, known as Dale’s Hallmark. “All of our merchandise, store fixtures, furniture and equipment must be sold.”
The store’s doors were locked Wednesday, with the phone going unanswered. The letters from the McNeils, mailed to some local customers as well, indicate the “wall to wall store closing sale” initially is open by invitation only through next Wednesday. However, it urges those holding invitations to bring a friend or relative.
“This store closing sale is initiated only after careful consideration,” the McNeils say in the letter to customers. “It is our way of thanking you for 20 wonderful years of business and friendship.”
The Hallmark Gold Crown outlets, which are independently owned and operated, are known for carrying a large selection of greeting cards. Other merchandise includes keepsake ornaments, collectibles such as figurines, jewelry, candles, candy and household items.
The McNeils don’t mention why the Hallmark store is shutting its doors this Christmas season. However, Kansas City, Mo.-based Hallmark has been downsizing its own manufacturing operations in recent years as more people have been sending online greetings for holidays and other major occasions. Greeting cards also are sold at most supermarkets, discount stores and pharmacies, generating intense competition for Hallmark retailers.
The company this year shut down its 150,000-square-foot Litho-Krome printing plant in the Midland area of Columbus, eliminating 50 jobs locally. It had employed at least 140 at one point.
The card company also announced over the summer to 570 employees at a distribution center in Enfield, Conn., that it was shuttering that facility and shifting work to a warehouse and distribution plant closer to its corporate offices, just as it had with Litho-Krome, the Kansas City Star reported.
About 400 jobs are being shifted to the firm’s Liberty, Mo., facility in that move, the newspaper reported. Hallmark’s U.S. workforce has been cut in half from its high of about 13,500 in 1997, the Kansas City paper said.
Hallmark stores also have been under pressure, with an outlet going out of business in Peachtree Mall in recent years. There have been other various closings reported in the U.S., including news from the Indianapolis Business Journal in July that an auction was being held for 20 Hallmark stores, owned by one franchisee, that had been closed throughout Indiana.
The Columbus store on Bradley Park Drive appears to be taking a bit of a festive approach to its liquidation, saying “fantastic” prizes will be awarded to those shopping at the “huge” closing sale.
This story was originally published December 9, 2015 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Hallmark store on Bradley Park Drive going out of business after two-decade run ."