Chain with 2 stores in Boise area files for bankruptcy. Liquidation sales coming fast
The company that owns Gordmans department stores has filed for bankruptcy and says it will close all its stores unless it finds buyers for at least some of them.
The chain’s stores include two in the Treasure Valley, at 2260 N. Eagle Road in Meridian and 16740 N. Marketplace Blvd. in Nampa. Both were, and still are, scheduled to reopen Friday after being closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Gordmans’ website. Now, however, a company news release indicates that the stores will reopen so that they can liquidate their inventory.
“The health and safety of its associates and guests remains Stage Stores’ top priority as it takes a phased approach to reopening its stores in the coming weeks to commence the liquidation of its inventory,” said Stage Stores, the owner, on Gordmans’ website Monday.
However, it was not fully clear whether the liquidation sales in Meridian and Nampa stores would begin immediately upon reopening. Calls to both stores went unanswered Monday afternoon.
Liquidation sales normally last several weeks in an effort to maximize revenue from whatever goods must be sold. Discounts at first tend to resemble those that shoppers might ordinarily find before the liquidation, and they gradually increase as stocks diminish.
The company said it would honor gift cards and returns at the stores for 30 days after they reopen.
The bankruptcy announcement also affects stores Gordmans had planned to convert this spring from Bealls stores, also owned by Stage Stores, in Burley in Southern Idaho and Blackfoot in Eastern Idaho. They had planned grand openings March 31, but the events were postponed as Idaho’s coronavirus lockdown took hold.
Gordmans, formerly a family-controlled company based in Omaha, Nebraska, opened stores in Nampa and Meridian in 2012 and in Boise in 2014. The Boise store was at ParkCenter Boulevard and Apple Street in the South Shore Shopping Center, the Eagle store at Eagle Road and Fairview Avenue, and the Nampa store in the Treasure Valley Marketplace near Midland Boulevard just north of I-84.
The stores sold clothing, furniture, gifts and other goods.
But Gordmans struggled. The company closed the Boise store in 2017 during a previous bankruptcy. It planned to close the Nampa and Meridian stores too, but Stage Stores, based in Houston, quickly bought the company’s assets and kept some stores open.
Stage Stores was gradually converting all of its stores to Gordmans stores when the pandemic struck. Besides Gordmans and Bealls, the company operates Royal, Goody’s, Peebles and Stage department stores — 738 stores in 42 states, mostly in small towns and midsize cities.
“This is a very difficult announcement, and it was a decision that we reached only after exhausting every possible alternative,” President and CEO Michael Glazer said in Monday’s news release. “Over the last several months, we had been taking significant steps to attempt to strengthen our financial position and find an independent path forward.
“However, the increasingly challenging market environment was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which required us to temporarily close all of our stores and furlough the vast majority of our associates. Given these conditions, we have been unable to obtain necessary financing and have no choice but to take these actions.”
Other chains were struggling before the pandemic as shoppers moved increasingly to online sales. Coronavirus-induced shutdowns crimped sales and made matters worse. Nieman Marcus and J. Crew filed for bankruptcy last week.
Gov. Brad Little permitted retail stores to reopen May 1 in the first of his four planned stages of reopening Idaho after the coronavirus lockdowns imposed in late March.
This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 5:14 PM.
