Aaron Brothers closing in downtown SLO, but it's not gone for good

Craft retailer Michaels is closing 94 of its Aaron Brothers art and framing stores — including the location in downtown San Luis Obispo.

The company announced in its earnings release March 21 that it would close most of its full-size Aaron Brothers locations, leaving only three custom-framing-only shops open in Texas. It did not give an expected closing date for the other stores.

The Aaron Brothers brand will instead be folded into Michaels' locations as a "store-within-a-store" concept.

The brand focuses primarily on custom framing, ready-made frames, wall art and art supplies.

Michaels expects the cost of closing the locations and implementing the store-within-a-store changes to be between $37 million to $42 million.

Aaron Brothers opened at its Higuera Street location in 1999. Michaels has two SLO County locations, in San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles.

This story was originally published March 26, 2018 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Aaron Brothers closing in downtown SLO, but it's not gone for good."