F21 OpCo, the U.S. operator of Forever 21, has filed for bankruptcy as the apparel company struggles to compete with online retailers. Forever 21 has one store in Baton Rouge, in the Mall of Louisiana. The company also has stores in Bossier City, Gretna, Lafayette, Metairie and New Orleans. A repre sentative for the Forever 21 store in the Mall of Louisiana told Daily Report on Monday afternoon that the store does plan to close, though an exact closing date is still up in the air. This marks the second time in six years that the retailer has filed for bankruptcy. It first filed for bankruptcy in 2019, when it closed 30% of its U.S. stores, including three in Louisiana. One of those shuttered Louisiana stores was in the Juban Crossing shopping center in Denham Springs. Last time, the retailer was bought out of bankruptcy by Sparc Group. This time, the bankruptcy might stick, as F21 OpCo filed for bankruptcy only after it was unable to find a buyer for Forever 21’s roughly 350 remaining U.S. stores. The company listed estimated assets in the range of $100 million to $500 million and estimated liabilities in the range of $1 billion to $10 billion. Forever 21’s online store and its stores outside of the U.S. seem likely to stay in business. ...read more read less