WARWICK – Borders Group Inc. announced Thursday it will close about 200 of its mall-based bookstores in January, including two local ones, and cut about 1,500 workers as the struggling chain reduces its footprint.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Borders said it will close its Waldenbooks store in the Warwick Mall and its Borders Express store in North Attleboro’s Emerald Square Mall after the Christmas shopping season. The stores will continue to honor gift cards as long as they remain open.

Four other Massachusetts stores also will be shuttered. Borders said the list could change in the coming weeks.

“Through this right-sizing, we will reduce the number of stores with operating losses, reduce our overall rent expense and lease-adjusted leverage and generate cash flow through sales and working capital reductions,” Borders CEO Ron Marshall said in a statement.

Borders said it already closed 112 mall-based bookstores this year and shuttered an average of 66 per year from 2001 through 2007.

The reduction in size will leave about 130 Waldenbooks and Borders Express stores nationwide, along with 513 of Borders’ flagship superstores such as the one at Providence Place mall. The announcement did not affect any Borders superstores.

Borders Group has been losing money since 2007 as consumers pared their spending and competition from Internet retailers continued to grow. The chain tried to sell itself last year but failed to strike a deal.

Borders’ chief competitor, Barnes & Noble Inc., recently announced that it plans to close nearly all of its B. Dalton mall-based stores.