Papyrus Is Closing 254 Stores, Including 14 in the Bay Area

Photo via Papyrus

Retail’s slow but steady death march in the Bay Area continues with news this week that Papyrus is closing its brick and mortar stores. Altogether, that’s 14 retail locations in the Bay Area, nine in San Francisco proper.

Fortune reported the closures yesterday, noting, “The company's cards and branded products will continue to be sold at other stores, but will no longer have standalone locations.” Online and in-stores, all merchandise is 20-40% off, and all sales are final. We dropped into the Westfield San Francisco Centre Papyrus location yesterday, where windows were plastered with the tell-tale red and black “Everything Must Go” signs, and merch was 20% off.

Papyrus failed to find a niche in the gifting and stationery world: its stores are dark, narrow, and less inviting than its main competitor in the Bay Area, Paper Source. Where many stationery stores offer greeting cards at a range of price points, Papyrus’s stock is relatively expensive: most cards are $7 or more. And there aren’t many of the quirky options that most local shoppers love, like letterpress cards featuring swear words or llamas in jaunty hats. The most notable characteristic of the brand has been its brick and mortar dominance, but that is also a liability.

Papyrus hasn’t announced a closing date, and California’s Employment Development Department has yet to post a WARN notice from the company. (Under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and California’s similar “mini-WARN” law, employers must give the state and employees 60-days’ notice of a mass layoff, which, in California, is a layoff of more than 50 employees within a 30-day period.) If you’re in the market for gift wrap, or a now-moderately priced greeting card, you know where to go.