La Senza is closing :(

[jlbiffis]

So I'm not sure if you all know this yet, but La Senza will be closing something like 36 stores. The worst part of it is that they haven't even told their employees and they wont be making it public until it happens, meaning they'll close up the store one day and just not open it back up the next. No clearance sales, nothing. I feel bad for the workers there, at least Zellers employees knew they were going to lose their jobs, these people don't even see it coming...

[ccmp1974]

Wow!!

[Brynhilde]

Great... I've been buying their bras for a long time and the colour/style and support has got worse over the years. If you want a really good bra in traditional colours, you have to pay $54 to get it. Good riddance.



I forgot to mention though that I feel bad for the employees.. just glad the products won't be sold anymore!!

[mulock]

$54 each for a bra. Yikes. I can't imagine what $54 boxers for men would look like. I'm a guy.

[KrazE]

If they haven't told their employees, how do you know about it?

It's really not uncommon to give only a small amount of notice when companies close doors, or when contracts end. They would have to pay out some money to employees 'in lieu of notice' which could be a week or two provided they are under the 5 year mark - so they are likely waiting to release the information in the hopes to have the least amount of impact on their business through fast attrition.

I know that sounds terrible, but as a former manager (closed up shop Dec 31st) of upwards of 108 employees, I can tell you that while it's tough not telling people that they will be out of a job, you have to remember the business side of it too.

The majority of my former employees were able to find work pretty quickly, but in the end, the only notice any employer is required to give if they choose to do so & avoid any sort of payout is based on the longest tenure for their location. So if someone has worked there for a year, then 1 week is all they have to give to everyone to avoid the payout.

It's a tough economy, so I hope people who lose their jobs & cannot take a 'mental health' break on EI like I have decided to do find gainful employment quickly.

[nicolthepickle]

I'm a little curious. If no-one knows about this how do you know, or rather why should we believe it?
I don't mean to be disrespectful, but stuff like this goes around on facebook all the time.

That's horrible for the employees. They must have to give them some extra pay or something.

[Brynhilde]

$54 each for a bra. Yikes. I can't imagine what $54 boxers for men would look like. I'm a guy.

I know right? They have much cheaper bras and underwear but they are flimsy and more for the teen crowd these days. I can't imagine DTD and showing Hubby some fluorescent pink, green and brown bra with matching panties.

[slayer_glade]

It's possible they're waiting for a buyout from another company like in the UK. If it's true, that is.

$54 each for a bra. Yikes. I can't imagine what $54 boxers for men would look like. I'm a guy.

lol, some women need to spend more than $54 on a bra

[jlbiffis]

My step-dad works for their delivery company and is good friends with one of the La Senza managers in the GTA. He only told me this morning, he said, "If you need to get anything, get it now because they'll be gone soon."

Apparently the Shoppers World location was down $35,000 last year.

[slayer_glade]

I know right? They have much cheaper bras and underwear but they are flimsy and more for the teen crowd these days. I can't imagine DTD and showing Hubby some fluorescent pink, green and brown bra with matching panties.

I haven't shopped there in years, but I do pop in now and again when they have sales. Yeah, they have fluorescent stuff, but that's not all their lines.

Personally, true, the cheap stuff is geared for teens, but I also find it's geared for smaller women. Which doesn't help me. Their sizes aren't 'real sizes'.

[jlbiffis]

Personally, true, the cheap stuff is geared for teens, but I also find it's geared for smaller women. Which doesn't help me. Their sizes aren't 'real sizes'.

I know! I went with my mom once and they did a bra fitting on her, tried to tell her she was a 38 when she's clearly larger. It's because they only carry up to size 38 lol they wanted a sale but nobody will buy a bra if it's digging into their torso no matter what anyone says.

[slayer_glade]

I know! I went with my mom once and they did a bra fitting on her, tried to tell her she was a 38 when she's clearly larger. It's because they only carry up to size 38 lol they wanted a sale but nobody will buy a bra if it's digging into their torso no matter what anyone says.

Ouch, that's awful, but typical. I'm glad she didn't give in, haha. For me, it's more about cup size since my rib cage is small. The Cs and Ds don't really cover much LOL.

[KrazE]

That's horrible for the employees. They must have to give them some extra pay or something.

As I said in my post above yours (we posted pretty closely together, so you probably didn't see it), no they don't have to give them extra anything unless it's 'in lieu of notice'.

It's not likely that anyone has worked for them long enough to require a severance payout which is a minimum of 5 years. In fact, I can tell you that of the 110 employees which included myself and the HR rep on site, only 2 of us (myself & the HR rep) qualified for severance when notice was given; and the notice that we gave the employees was based off the fact that one employee had been with us for 4 years - that's 4 weeks notice.

Like I said, I know that sounds terrible, but unless you've been put in the position where mass attrition can break your business, it's hard to understand why most companies wait for as long as possible to give notice.

[Brynhilde]

I haven't shopped there in years, but I do pop in now and again when they have sales. Yeah, they have fluorescent stuff, but that's not all their lines.

Personally, true, the cheap stuff is geared for teens, but I also find it's geared for smaller women. Which doesn't help me. Their sizes aren't 'real sizes'.

Of course. The more affordable stuff seems to be.. or atleast really odd colours. I prefer reds, blacks.. even the occasional nude colour. Something that is a solid colour you know? One has to pay a price most of the time to get those

When I was in my teens, that place was great given that I was smaller and didn't really care much about support (and they had better colours back then).. but once I had kids, I found I had a lot of problems with their bras. Not to mention like you said, their sizes aren't real ones. If I'm looking for a large size, I might as well look elsewhere.

[Kristina506]

If you google this there a quite a few articles talking about it. The number of stores they mention closing is 81