Though the three stores were popular with both local residents and tourists, the stores had an uneven profit record. By the 1990s, as the Japanese economy collapsed, the Tokyu Group went heavily into debt. By 2001 the company was already $470 million in debt, and in 1999 it was forced to close its 330-year-old flagship location in Nihonbashi. In order to further cut costs, Tokyu began to shed its overseas businesses, either selling them off or closing them outright. Eventually, attention turned to the Shirokiya stores, with the Pearlridge store closing in March 2001 and the Maui store shuttering in May of that same year.