JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It’s the end of an era for a company that has called Northeast Florida home for more than 40 years: Stein Mart’s last two locations in Jacksonville closed their doors for good Monday.
Three racks of clothes and various fixtures were the only items left at the Baymeadows-area location, which was promoting 95% off everything left in the department store by late Monday afternoon.
Julia Wicker was among the shoppers who showed up. She told News4Jax she came by the store a few weeks back, but figured she would make one final stop before the store was gone for good.
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“It was history here and we’ll miss it,” Wicker said of the store she shopped at for the last several decades.
Stein Mart first opened its doors in Greensville, Mississippi in 1908. The department store eventually expanded into 33 states with a total of 279 stores at its peak, most of them in Florida.
The department store’s first Jacksonville location opened in 1983. A year later, the company’s headquarters was moved to the city’s Southbank.
Over the years, Stein Mart survived the Great Depression and Great Recession, but it could not make it through the COVID-19 pandemic.