After 6 decades, home-decor chain to close all 540 stores, including one at Boise mall
Retailer Pier 1 Imports announced on Tuesday that it will close all of its 540 stores, including two in the Treasure Valley.
“This is not the outcome we expected or hoped to achieve,” CEO Robert Riesbeck said in a news release. “This decision follows months of working to identify a buyer who would continue to operate our business going forward. Unfortunately, the challenging retail environment has been significantly compounded by the profound impact of COVID-19, hindering our ability to secure such a buyer and requiring us to wind down.”
The announcement came four days after JC Penney declared bankruptcy and announced it would close a third of its stores.
Pier 1 announced in January that it planned to close about 400 of its 936 stores at that time. The announcement came as Pier 1 reported a quarterly sales decline of 13% and a loss of $59 million.
The following month, it filed for bankruptcy.
The company’s two Treasure Valley stores — at 140 N. Milwaukee St., outside the Boise Towne Square mall, and at 2170 N. Eagle Road, at The Village at Meridian — closed in March following Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s stay-home order because of the coronavirus pandemic. Neither store has reopened.
In its court filing, Pier 1 said it plans to open some of its stores to begin liquidation sales around May 22, which is Friday. In a notice on its website, the company said it will keep those stores open until early fall, and closures then will vary by location. Pier 1 did not identify which stores would have liquidation sales, so it’s not know whether the Boise and Meridian locations will reopen at all.
Pier 1, which traces its roots to a store in San Mateo, California, in 1962, announced its demise four days after J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy and said it would close a third of its stores. The fate of the one at the Boise mall is not known.
Pier 1 said it will continue to seek a buyer for its e-commerce business, intellectual property and inventory.
Pier 1 and Penney’s are among a number of ailing U.S. retailers that have filed for bankruptcy this year. Others include clothing store J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Gordman’s and Sweet Tomatoes restaurant.
This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 2:54 PM.
