I Love Saipan Pop-Up Store closing down

The I Love Saipan Pop-Up Store in Chalan Laulau has shut its doors indefinitely as the company awaits the renewals of 27 critical employees. The company’s president Alex Youn states that if the issue is prolonged, the island’s newest venture will be out of business. Inset shows the company’s notice of closure. (Dennis B. Chan)

According to AC Pacific LLC president Alex Youn, the I Love Saipan Pop Up Store, which is located in the former LA Tax Free Shop building in Chalan Laulau, has shut its doors indefinitely, an additional blow to the economy after Truong’s indefinite closure.

The store opened last year following recovery efforts of Typhoon Soudelor featuring bargain deals on apparel, accessories, toiletries, furniture, and other household items.

The business was considered a hotspot for bargains on name-brand items not found anywhere else on island. Yesterday afternoon three Matson containers filled with several items sat in the parking area at a standstill.

Youn states that they employ 100 employees throughout the company and that 27 CW workers are affected by the Dec. 31, 2015, permit expiration and delays.

“We officially announced to all the employees that we’d be closing the Pop-Up Store. We have to relocate the U.S. citizen workers to other stores to keep up with operations and the tourist market,” he said.

He was expecting at least four employees to be renewed in the batch of 800 approved workers announced yesterday, but instead the company was issued an RFE or request for evidence instead.

An RFE is made by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services when an immigration or visa application is lacking required evidence, or the immigration officer needs additional evidence to determine the eligibility of an applicant for the benefit sought.

“We sent the applications out on time, the recommended 90 days, but there was a delay with the U.S. Postal Service and it took pretty long to get there. This was a new concept store and we were about to take off but we have no other option but to close down now,” he said.

He stated that the four critical employees make up accounting and IT personnel with the remaining 23 employed as language skill workers who cater to the Chinese and Korean market.

He says that many employees are currently working overtime.

When asked whether the company was looking to hiring U.S. workers to mediate the situation, he says, “we are always open to hire U.S. workers who have the language skills but it’s very difficult here. We can only issue a work-stop order knowing [our employees] have no way to make a living. It was a really hard decision but we can’t go against the law. I just hope that we can have these workers soon so we can open the store and get back to normal operations,” he said.