NORWICH – After 10 years in Chenango County, the Norwich Peebles Department Store is scheduled to close in January after corporate representatives said 20 stores throughout the country needed to be shut down to strengthen the company.

According to Peebles Director of Public Relations and Community Bria Lundy, the company will close Norwich's Peebles on January 19, 2019, as part of a strategy to improve the organization and the impact it has in its communities.

“We decided to close a handful of stores across the country and really the strategy behind it is to help strengthen our company and better serve our customers and communities,” said Lundy.

Lundy said the Peebles stores in New York State are Norwich, Canandaigua, Brockport, and Troy. She said by closing these stores, and 16 others throughout the United States, it will help improve and strengthen the business.

"We opened the Norwich store in March of 2008, so it's been a little over 10 years," she said. "We hope that our Norwich customers will go over to the Sidney store or shop online."