Washington is Losing Familiar Storefronts as West Marine Closes 7 of its 10 Locations
Seattle Today Newsroom
September 13, 2026
The state of Washington is seeing a noticeable shift in its retail footprints as three well-known companies shut down a total of 24 storefronts across the region.
West Marine is shutting down seven of its ten Washington locations as part of a nationwide Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring that spans 91 stores across 28 states. The boating supplier rolled out these cutbacks in two stages. Legal papers filed in June listed Bellingham, Bremerton, Everett, Spokane, and Port Townsend. By late summer, the company expanded its list from 59 locations to 91, bringing Bellevue and Olympia into the mix.
The exact shutdown dates remain unannounced. The seven locations shutting down might not be the final number, as West Marine had added more locations to its closure directory without new court filings. This year’s largest loss came after Eddie Bauer submitted a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in February and went on to close all eleven of its Washington stores. The retailer completely shut down all its physical stores in North America on April 30 after an auction offering 174 store leases failed to attract any qualified buyers. The outdoor brand, which was originally established in Seattle in 1920 and at one point ran nearly 600 locations globally, vacated prominent spots including University Village, Westfield Southcenter, Auburn’s Outlet Collection, Tacoma Mall, Woodinville Plaza, and Alderwood.
T-Mobile is also closing six locations across Washington State, cutting 77 jobs between September 21 and November 18. According to a late-August WARN notice filed by the Bellevue-based carrier, the closures impact stores in Seattle, Bellingham, Bothell, Kennewick, Tacoma, and Yakima. This follows a larger layoff in February, when T-Mobile cut 393 positions statewide.
Although the motives behind their closure were very different, all three businesses ended up at the same point. T-Mobile storefronts were not closed because of bankruptcy, but because the company is walking away from physical storefronts and would rather customers use the app; T-Mobile is therefore still a profitable business. The shutdown of Eddie Bauer and West Marine storefronts, on the other hand, was the result of an unavoidable consequence of bankruptcy liquidation. Ultimately, the companies’ drastically different financial conditions have arrived at the exact same conclusion: Operating a physical store in Washington isn’t paying off anymore.
This retail contraction barely registers in broad economic indicators. Washington reported a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 5.0% for July, which is a slight drop from 5.2% in June, alongside an estimated gain of 21,000 jobs, even though it still sits higher than the 4.6% recorded a full year prior. Because job losses of this scale fall under the radar for mass layoff tracking, the real economic impact isn’t seen in official state reports; it shows up in the vacant storefronts sitting quiet at University Village and Tacoma Mall.
