Now there's increasing evidence discounters are feeling the chill. On Wednesday, Filene's Basement, the Boston merchant that pioneered off-price retailing, confirmed that it plans to close one-third of its stores.

The Burlington, Mass.-based discount chain will trim 11 of 36 stores nationwide.

The company, best known for its "Running of the Brides" wedding gown sales, decided to shed underperforming stores in an effort to bolster its stronger locations. The move is the latest in a crescendo of big chain retailers, ranging from Starbucks to J.C. Penney, retrenching in order to cope with the biggest downturn in consumer spending since the 1970s.

TJX Cos. and Ross Stores Inc. _ two off-price designer chains that had bucked the industrywide retail decline for much of 2007 _ both saw their sales hit the skids during the holiday. Cash-strapped consumers are avoiding discretionary purchases, sticking to basics like groceries.

Filene's Basement saw its same-store sales fall 3.3 percent in the fiscal third quarter ended Nov. 1 after rising 1.4 percent in the fiscal second quarter ended Aug. 2.

There is little relief in sight. ShopperTrak RCT Corp. predicts a sharp 4.0 percent retail sales drop in the first quarter as foot traffic to malls is forecast to fall 16 percent from the same period a year ago.

"We're in such a difficult time right now," said Jay McIntosh, president of Consumer Foresight LLC, a Chicago-based consulting firm. "Every company is looking at survival."

Filene's executives have been working since December to renegotiate leases with its landlords to no avail, said spokeswoman Mariellen Burns.

"If there is some way to come to terms with the landlords, that will be wonderful," said Burns. "But we want to be realistic in these times. The bottom line is that we don't want to jeopardize the other 25 stores that are performing better."

Filene's Basement began in 1908 when Edward A. Filene began selling excess merchandise from his father's Boston department store in the basement. Filene's became a part of Federated Department Stores in 1929.

The two entities split in 1988 when Filene's was sold to May Department Stores Co. and Filene's Basement was taken private by top managers. Filene's Basement went public in 1991, expanded beyond its home base to Chicago and Minneapolis, and wound up in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 1999.

In 2000, Filene's Basement was acquired by Value City Department Stores of Columbus, Ohio, which later reorganized into a holding company called Retail Ventures Inc. Last year Retail Ventures disposed of its 81 percent interest in Value City, but kept an expanded Filene's Basement and discount shoe retailer DSW Inc. Value City, filed for Chapter 11 in October and subsequently liquidated.

Filene's Basement has long struggled with the need to expand nationally in order to have the heft to compete.

"If you're going to be in that business, you have to be as big as you can possibly get," said George Whalin, president and CEO Retail Management Consultants Inc. in Carlsbad, Calif. "When buying closeouts, you have to be big enough to buy what hits the market. That's how you get the best buys."

Clearance sales at the 11 stores tagged for closing began Monday. Other stores slated to close are in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.

The decision to close the stores was first reported in the Boston Globe.

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