How Forever 21 Forgot Why People Loved It

Forever 21 didn't collapse because of Shein and Temu — it was bought in 2020 by its own mall landlords, Simon Property Group and Brookfield, for a reason that had nothing to do with selling clothes. This is the story of the co-tenancy clause that kept a dying retailer's lights on for five years, the slow rot that followed, and the roughly 10,000 retail jobs lost when the stores finally liquidated for good in 2025. It's not a villain story — it's what happens when a brand's owners get paid whether or not anyone actually shops there. Subscribe for more deep dives into the American retail brands that quietly stopped being what we remember.