Eastern Mountain Store in Newton to Close

If you noticed the lines at Eastern Mountain Sports this weekend, it's for good reason. They're having a going out of business sale. The Newton Eastern Mountain Sports store announced it was closing - one of about 27 to do so across the country. This comes a couple months after the parent company Eastern Outfitters, also the parent of discount chain Bob's Stores declared bankruptcy.

"After many years in the community, this location will be closing. Effective on Saturday, April 29th, all sales at this location are final," reads a note on the Newton location's website.

And it was packed with folks looking for a good deal this weekend. There's no actual date on when the final day will be, but employees were telling folks who asked that when the merchandise was gone, they'd be closing up shop - and estimated about six weeks give or take a bit.

This isn't the first time EMS has run into trouble. Last year, under a previous parent company that filed for bankruptsy and closed a Eight EMS stores, including one in Foxboro, to cut costs and focus on the brand.

"As part of the planned transition, Sport Chalet began store closing sales on April 16, 2016, at all of its locations, while EMS and Bob's began closings at a total of just nine locations (eight EMS and one Bob's) where real estate costs are unfavorable and have prevented the store from achieving sufficient profitability," said a press release dated from last year. But those closures didn't appear to affect the Boston area stores.

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Eastern Outfitters LLC, the corporate parent of Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob's, a clothing and footwear chain, declared bankruptcy in February and will be acquired by an affiliate of Sports Direct International PLC, based in the U.K.

In 1967 a pair of Wellesley climbers founded EMS. They sold it in 1979 and it changed hands a few more times until it was sold in 2012 to an affiliate of Versa, a private equity firm who declared bankruptcy last year. The current parent company bought it last year.

The 1041 Commonwealth Avenue store in Boston is also closing. It started its closing process about two weeks before the Newton store.

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