Kohl's Plans To Close 7 Southern California Locations

SANTA ANA (CBSLA.com) — Kohl's is closing 18 locations nationwide, seven of which are located in Southern California.

The impacted locations include: Arcadia, Cypress, Ladera Ranch, Santa Ana, Upland South, West Hills, and Mira Mesa.

"They're under tremendous pressure now from the Amazon effect. The effect of online shopping," said Peter Navarro, a UC Irvine economist, who explains that the Kohl's closures tell a bigger store.

Malls across the nation, he says, will soon shut down many of their stores as online shopping continues.

"Just like Airbnb is killing hotel chains and Uber is killing taxi industry. Well, the Amazon effect is killing malls," he said.

And customers like Tiffany Miller aren't at all happy about it.

"I don't like to shop online. For me, I like to go in and try it on and make sure it fits," she said. "They have the best return policy. I love Kohl's."

A Kohl's spokesperson says the stores that are closing didn't make enough money to justify staying open.

Navarro says in five years he predicts that every major chain could follow Kohl's.

But, he says, for shoppers, that's not a bad thing.

"Consumers shouldn't freak out because we are gonna get better, faster, cheaper goods," he said.

The closures are expected to take place in just three months and will impact up to 1,800 employees nationwide.