Filene's Basement to close four stores

BOSTON, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Discount department store Filene's Basement is closing four stores in Massachusetts by the end of the year, employees said.

Employees at stores in Braintree, Peabody, Saugus and Watertown said all sales would be final and that the company would close up those stores around Christmas, The Boston Globe reported Tuesday.

The closings would leave only three Filene's locations in Massachusetts and cut sharply into its overall numbers. Four stores is 15 percent of the company's 26 locations.

Syms Corp., the company that purchased Filene's when it was in bankruptcy in 2009, did not return calls to comment on the closures, the Globe said.