The health-care law recently upheld by the Supreme Court will increase costs for Chico’s and may force the women's clothing retailer to close some stores, CEO David Dyer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
"There may be some stores that will become marginal because of additional expenses and we'll have to consider whether we want to keep them open or not," Dyer said.
Dyer also said there's some caution out there over the economy. With the core Chico’s customer either thinking about retiring or already retired, “anything that increases the volatility that we may see will certainly not be good for business,” Dyer noted.
He pointed to last year’s debt ceiling debate as an example.
“We fell off a cliff faster than I’d ever seen in my career during the debt ceiling debate last year,” he said. “We went from double-digit increases to negative comps in a period of about a week.”
This year, however, inventories are leaner, so Chico’s should be better able to handle any volatility that may arise, he noted.