Aéropostale filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday, while it was seeking approval to immediately close 154 of its more than 800 stores. Not a complete surprise as the company has been struggling to compete with retail giants such as Zara, H&M and Forever 21, and has presented declining results in the last quarters.

Back in March the company already announced it was “exploring strategic alternatives,” including finding a buyer.

With the new proceedings the company hopes to emerge from the reorganization within the next six months as a "standalone enterprise with a smaller store base."

In the massive shutdown of stores are included all Canada stores and roughly 110 US locations.