Another one bites the dust

The Bath and Body Works store on Grand Ave. (near the Bookstore) is closing up shop on January 23. It's been in the works for awhile but the employees were just notified this week.

The store had excellent sales, but apparently too many problems plague the Grove location. While it is a destination location in the Grove, that is great for the Grove, but not for the store, being a destination means they can be anywhere and customers will seek them out. They want to be where the parking is easier for their customers. This is what one of the managers told me. Why not be at Dadeland or a strip shopping center or a location where people can easily park and shop?

But the main reason for their closing is theft, which was the same reason given for the closing of Sephora across the street. Too many thefts in the Grove store. They had to put on extra staff making the operating costs too high, said the manager I spoke with.

I know that a few years ago, we witnessed theft going on on a regular basis at the Bath and Body Works store. An employee who worked in the store would load up bags and have a friend take them out to her car. Many in the area knew of this but no one stopped them. It really was not a Grove problem, it was an employee problem. When you have a crooked employee, that's an inside job and it can happen anywhere. But if Sephora closed because of a theft problem, was it also an inside job or an outside job and is it a Grove-wide problem?