20+ years after opening its first store in Houston, Texas, women’s boutique chain Francesca’s is closing all of its stores nationwide. According to a report fromWomen’s Wear Daily (WWD), the company is liquidating its inventory and preparing to shut down permanently.

A representative from the only remaining Montgomery County location, at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, confirmed the store will be liquidating its inventory and closing within the next two months. The boutique is currently holding a “last chance warehouse sale” online with all clearance items priced at $15 and under.

Francesca’s operates nine locations in Maryland, all of which are expected to close as part of the nationwide shutdown in the coming months. In Montgomery County, the Montgomery Mall store was the last remaining location. Previous county locations at Rio, Pike & Rose, and Bethesda Row closed within the past five years.

 

Wayfair has announced an opening date for its new Maryland outlet store, bringing the online home goods giant’s discount retail concept to Arundel Mills in Hanover.

According to a social media post by the store, the Wayfair Outlet will officially open on Friday, January 23, 2026, with hours listed as 10am to 8pm. The store is located inside Arundel Mills, one of the state’s largest shopping destinations.

Wayfair, one of the nation’s largest online home furnishings retailers, operates outlet locations across the country that offer deeply discounted merchandise. Shoppers can expect a rotating selection of overstock, discontinued, and returned items, including furniture, home décor, appliances, and other household goods.

As with other Wayfair Outlet locations, items are sold as is, all sales are final, and warranties are not provided. Limited returns are typically allowed only for defective appliances and for online purchases made through wayfair.com, not for in store outlet purchases.

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Tencia Benavidez, a Supernatural user who lives in New Mexico, started her VR workouts during the Covid pandemic. She has been a regular user in the five years since, calling the ability to work out in VR ideal, given that she lives in a rural area where it’s hard to get to a gym or work out outside during a brutal winter. She stuck with Supernatural because of the community and the eagerness of Supernatural’s coaches.

“They seem like really authentic individuals that were not talking down to you,” Benavidez says. “There's just something really special about those coaches.”

Meta bought Supernatural in 2022, folding it into its then-heavily-invested-in metaverse efforts. The purchase was not a smooth process, as it triggered a lengthy legal battle in which the US Federal Trade Commission tried to block Meta from purchasing the service due to antitrust concerns about Meta “trying to buy its way to the top” of the VR market. Meta ultimately prevailed. At the time, some Supernatural users were cautiously optimistic, hoping that big bag of Zuckerbucks could keep its workout juggernaut afloat.

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