Maurices, the women’s clothing chain with 1,000 locations throughout North America, is closing its store at Crossroads Mall in Fort Dodge, in part because of the condition of the building, according to Jacy Diosdado, store manager.

“The condition of the mall with them not doing updates and having issues there, and being outdated to the point where people don’t even want to come into the mall,” Diosdado said.

The official close date is Jan. 13, she said.

Maurices is headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota.

Diosdado said the Fort Dodge location was one of a “handful” of stores deemed a nonperforming store by corporate.

Online shopping hurt the store, she said.

“Online shoppers who get everything from Amazon or even shopping online Maurices, but then we get the online returns,” she said. “There are a lot of factors that played into it. It’s really unfortunate, but that’s how the cards were dealt.”

She said many of the returns came from out of town.

“We got a lot of area returns,” she said. “We got things from Ames, from Carroll, Storm Lake, Des Moines.”

Eight employees, including Diosdado, will lose their jobs. Two employees are full time. Six are part time.

“You have your young college girls who are living on their own, providing for themselves,” Diosdado said. “It’s a really sad thing to see.”

Diosdado, a Fort Dodge native, moved back home about a year-and-a-half ago.

“The community is growing, but the malls are just dissipating,” she said. “The condition of the mall and the updates it needs is a huge factor.”

According to Diosdado, much of the store’s products will likely be moved to other stores in the coming weeks.

She wasn’t aware of any specific sales.

She said customers will miss the shopping experience.

“We have some amazing loyal customers that will be pretty devastated and shocked,” she said. “I’ve already heard ‘where am I going to shop?’ That’s the truth. Everything is dwindling and diminishing. It’s really sad.”

Melissa Verschoor, the mall’s marketing director, said she couldn’t comment on the closure.

“The company (Maurices) has asked that we not say anything,” she said.

Crossroads Mall is owned by J. Herzog & Sons Inc., of Denver, Colorado.

The mall has an estimated 37 stores remaining. About 12 vacancies exist.

The closure of Maurices follows other recent closures at the mall.

Book World, the Wisconsin-based company, which sells books, magazines, toys, trading cards and other games, announced its closure in early November.

JCPenney, which had been an anchor at the mall for more than 50 years, also closed within the past year. That store building may be demolished.

The Sears store, which had also been open for more than 50 years, closed in January of 2015.

A firm planning to develop the Sears store building, which is owned by Blessing Enterprises LLC, of Missouri, backed out of that plan recently.