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Delia's, Your Favorite Store of the '90s, Is Failing

Photo: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/shopdelias/photos/pb.7815319716.-2207520000.1415022217./10152795812389717/?type=3&amp;theater">Delia's/</a>Facebook
Photo: Delia's/Facebook

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Teen retailer Delia's is in real trouble. The once-thriving brand could be delisted from the Nasdaq Global Market today, and Buzzfeed explains why (while also posting images that will be instantly familiar to anyone who obsessed over the catalog in the '90s). According to Buzzfeed, Delia's is looking to be acquired, and sales have been down by at least 20% over the previous year for the past four quarters. The company had hoped that former J.Crew executive Tracy Gardner could turn things around.

It's a familiar problem for once-mighty teen retailers. Fast fashion brands like H&M and Forever 21 are offering trendier clothes for less money than their competitors. And while the catalog was pitch-perfect for the nineties teen, today Delia's isn't doing anything groundbreaking to reach teens where they are—on social media. The chain is down to 95 stores and brought in $137 million in sales last year.

"Anything that's done a good job or has been as brave as they were in the early days, you hate to see it go. But there's an awful lot out there where shoppers can get the same kinds of clothes and accessories without having to go to Delia's, and that's the hard part about it," Wendy Liebmann of WSL Strategic Retail told Buzzfeed.