Lechters will close one-third of its stores

TRENTON, N.J. – Lechters Inc., one of the country’s largest housewares retailers, has announced a restructuring that will close 166 of its 490 stores and eliminate 725 full-time jobs, or one-third of its full-time staff.

All four Maine Lechters stores will remain open, according to Wendi Kopsick, Lechters’ spokeswoman. The stores to be closed have been “poor performers,” she said Monday. Lechters has stores at the Bangor Mall, Auburn Mall, Maine Mall in South Portland and The Maine Outlet in Kittery.