WASHINGTON — Payless Inc., operator of Payless ShoeSource has identified a half dozen locations in the immediate D.C. area that will close as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

Payless is closing about 400 underperforming stores in the United States and Puerto Rico as part of its reorganization.

Local stores closing include its Georgia Avenue location, one at Good Hope Marketplace on Alabama Avenue in Southeast, and Payless locations in Rockville, Oxon Hill and Forestville, Maryland as well as its store at Battlefield Shopping Center in Leesburg, Virginia.

“This is a difficult, but necessary, decision driven by the continued challenges of the retail environment, which will only intensify,” Payless Chief Executive W. Paul Jones said in a statement.

The company did not cite a specific date for the closings.

Payless has more than three dozen retail locations in the D.C. area.

Payless, which opened its first store in Topeka, Kansas, in 1956, has more than 4,000 stores and 22,000 employees in 30 countries.