Syms Cranston store closes

CRANSTON – Clothing store Syms closed its Cranston store last month, leaving yet another large box store vacant in the Ocean State.
The store in Cranston sits in a plaza that also contains a Building 19 and is near the Warwick Mall. Davia Temin, a spokeswoman for New Jersey-based Syms, said the store closed at the end of January.
The company, which also owns Filene’s Basement, has shut a number of stores, including ones in Commack, N.Y., and Peabody, Mass., in an apparent attempt to shrink overhead and reverse a series of disappointing financial results.
“Syms has lost the lease on its Cranston store, and thus will be closing the store,” Temin said. “We hope that our customers will go to our Web site, Syms.com, for a listing of all Syms and Filene’s Basement stores in the Northeast.”
The company said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it lost $1.5 million during the nine-month period that ended Nov. 29, 2008. It reported a $15.7 million profit for the same period in 2009, but attributed about $16 million in income from life insurance proceeds and other income related to the death of its founder and CEO, Sy Syms, who died in November 2009.