Published June 2003

Spiegel to close call center, Everett Eddie Bauer store

By Eric Fetters
Herald Business Writer

Eddie Bauer’s financially troubled parent company will close its customer service center in south Snohomish County, laying off 365 people by early July.

The closure of the Bothell call center was one of several cost-cutting actions announced in May by The Spiegel Group, which has been under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since March.

“We’re in the process of reorganization, and we need to reduce our costs and streamline our facilities,” said Debbie Koopman, a Spiegel spokeswoman.

The center is scheduled to close July 6. Laid-off employees will receive severance and benefits, Koopman said.

The company also is cutting 180 jobs at Eddie Bauer’s headquarters in Redmond and laying off 90 employees from its computer systems support staff in the Chicago area.

Earlier, Spiegel said it would close 60 Eddie Bauer stores in North America, including the one at Everett Mall, in the coming weeks. Another 21 Spiegel and Newport News outlets also are shutting.

Koopman said the Bothell operation, which previously laid off 200 people in February, had the highest costs among the company’s five call centers. She added that customer orders handled by the Bothell center would be picked up by the other facilities in South Dakota, Virginia and Canada.

The local call center, which takes catalog orders for Eddie Bauer and other Spiegel-owned businesses, has employed more than 1,000 people at times since it opened in 1997.

Located in a two-story, 65,000-square-foot building at 3700 Monte Villa Parkway in Bothell, it was named one of the nation’s “call centers of the year” for 2000 by Call Center Magazine. Managers boasted about the building’s high ceilings and big windows that made for a more comfortable environment for employees.

Spiegel has hired New York-based Keen Realty LLC to market the call center as well as assisting the company in leasing the retail locations being closed, including the Eddie Bauer store in the Everett Mall.

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