The first round of layoffs will begin on or about May 10, according to the spokeswoman.
Payless first filed for bankruptcy in February, announcing that it would close all 2,300 of its stores. The company previously had a store at the Dayton Mall, which has already closed. Another store at the Mall at Fairfield is still open.
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The closures have been said to be the largest ever in terms of store count, and have heavily contributed to the number of store closures in the first four months of 2019 already surpassing all of 2018.
Liquidation sales are currently underway at all remaining Payless stores. Many have already closed, but majority will remain open through May, a spokeswoman said. Sales are at up to 60 percent off at remaining stores, according to the company’s website.
Payless’s recent bankruptcy filing is the second, after emerging from an April 2017 filing.
Collective Brands, the former owner of Payless before private equity firms Golden Gate Capital and Blum Capital Partners bought Payless in 2012, first announced it would build the 600,000 square-foot Eastern Distribution Center at 1 Payless Way in May 2007.
Local officials credited the Payless facility for bringing other major projects to the area, including the $90 million Proctor & Gamble, distribution center at the Dayton Airport.
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Logistics firm Prologis closed on the deal for the 1.8 million square-foot center in 2013, which now employs 1,300 people.
“With the Payless facility, I think people start to notice that,” said Dan Foley at the time, when he was in his second term as Montgomery County commissioner. “They say, ‘Hey, that’s a major company that picked the Dayton region for a reason.’”
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