In January 2012, Macy's announced it would close five underperforming stores with final clearance sales beginning January 8, and would run through early spring, including the Laurel Mall location, which left Burlington Coat Factory its last remaining anchor store. During this phase, the mall advertised its transformation with cryptic messages printed across some of the shuttered store fronts, such as "Don't judge a book by its cover", "Looks can be deceiving", "Beauty is more than skin deep", "If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies", and "It's what's inside that counts".