HANOVER — Yet another retail space will become vacant on Hanover’s South Main Street.
Zimmermanns The North Face, which exclusively sells North Face outdoor apparel and has been in business for 12 years, will shut its doors when its lease expires at the end of June, store manager Bill Boyle said.
Boyle, who has run the independent retailer of North Face apparel since the store opened in 2005, said the family business has seen sales decline in recent years.
“Basically we are seeing the effects of online shopping. That’s the primary reason. Also (North Face) selling direct to the consumer has undercut their dealer base,” Boyle said.
He also cited “change in brand taste” among students — long customers of the store at 63 S. Main St. — as a factor in declining sales.
“Look outside today, and you’ll see they are wearing Canadian Goose jackets,” he said.
The closing of Zimmermanns the North Face marks the latest in a series of Hanover apparel shops that have closed in recent years, including Rare Essentials and Essentials for Men, Clay’s, Ramblers Way, Rosey Jekes and The Mountain Goat, that all have fallen victim to the rise of online shopping and shifting fashion trends.
Hanover’s South Main Street currently has three key retail store vacancies: the former Canoe Club restaurant, the former Dartmouth Bookstore, and space in the Nugget Arcade Building that was once occupied by Amidon Jewelers and, briefly, as a satellite exhibition space for the Hood Museum of Art.
(A new bookstore, Still North Books, plans to open later this year in the back portion of the former Dartmouth Bookstore).
Boyle said Zimmermanns The North Face will remain open through Dartmouth College’s graduation and alumni weekend later this spring.
Zimmermanns The North Face is owned by Stefan Hausberger, who also owns Zimmermanns Skis, Boards & More in Nashua. The Nashua store will remain open, Boyle said.
The South Main Street building in which Zimmermanns The North Face is located, which includes Bank of America and Merrill Lynch branch offices, is owned by Dartmouth.
Posted at 5:05 p.m. Thursday.
