COLUMBUS, Ind. — Kirlin’s Hallmark, one of the original Fair Oaks Mall stores, is going out of business.
The card and gift store that has served Columbus since 1990 will likely close its doors sometime in mid-April, according to store manager Stephanie Crosby.
“Online shopping has eroded our sales,” said Penny Marks, director of operations for the Quincy, Illinois-based Kirlin’s Inc. In 2015, U.S. retail sales of greeting cards rose by 1.5 percent to $8.59 billion, and are expected to reach $9.07 billion in 2020, industry tracker Sundale Research reported last year. But the growth rates of e-cards far exceed those sold in retail channels, according to a Nov. 21, 2016 article published in the Chicago Tribune.
E-card sales rose by 4.6 percent to $868 million two years ago, and are expected to pass $1 billion in 2019, the newspaper stated. When Fair Oaks Mall opened in 1990, Kirlin’s – originally founded as a Quincy candy store in 1948 – was considered America’s largest independent Hallmark dealer, according to local advertisements from that time.
Read more in Sunday’s print edition of The Republic.
