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Zorro

(15,691 posts)
Tue May 19, 2020, 11:41 PM May 2020

Pier 1 is going out of business

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

Pier 1 Imports Inc., the seller of wicker chairs and scented candles, said it will go out of business and permanently close all 540 of its stores.

The Fort Worth company said Tuesday that it was unable to find a buyer for its business after filing for bankruptcy protection this year.

It said it will start going-out-of-business sales as soon as it can reopen stores that have been temporarily shut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pier 1 started with a single store in 1962 that sold beanbag chairs and love beads to hippies in San Mateo, Calif. It expanded to offer just about anything for the home, including lounge chairs and curtains, and it later adopted the logo “From Hippie to Hip.” At its height, Pier 1 had more than 1,200 stores.

Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/story/2020-05-19/pier-1-going-out-of-business-closing-stores

27 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Pier 1 is going out of business (Original Post) Zorro May 2020 OP
They go into and out of business/bankruptcy with regularity since the seventies ... marble falls May 2020 #1
Bain Capital - Professional vultures. Hi Mitt, who are you shorting now? nt OAITW r.2.0 May 2020 #2
Actually, I quite like the alternate spelling. cos dem May 2020 #10
Aw, damn. calimary May 2020 #3
Great place to shop in the 60s Warpy May 2020 #5
It used to be great catchnrelease May 2020 #8
They opened one in Wichita around 68' if I remember right Bengus81 May 2020 #19
Back in late Feb/early Mar. our local Pier 1 was having a going out of business sale. salin May 2020 #4
one of the local Pier 1s near me was closing down in Dec/January. Demovictory9 May 2020 #11
That is too bad. nt applegrove May 2020 #6
Not surprised. They went from a really Phoenix61 May 2020 #7
This. Ilsa May 2020 #24
Pier one I_UndergroundPanther May 2020 #9
LOL! Demovictory9 May 2020 #12
It was a little slice of heaven at Christmas time liberalguilt57 May 2020 #13
This message was self-deleted by its author liberalguilt57 May 2020 #14
Damn, that store has stuff I've NEVER seen anywhere else. Talitha May 2020 #15
I remember going there with my mom DonaldsRump May 2020 #16
Want an alternative? llmart May 2020 #18
Do these places need to open up so many locations ? I feel like many businesses JI7 May 2020 #17
Marketing/Sales departments often don't talk to the Pricing Departments. Xolodno May 2020 #26
Aww, man. demmiblue May 2020 #20
you just nailed why this news makes me sad/nostalgic! renate May 2020 #23
I used to love to go BillyBobBrilliant May 2020 #21
As with seemingly every other store The Mouth May 2020 #22
I got a great deal on a dining room table a couple years ago Mosby May 2020 #25
A lot of their stuff was overpriced. Ours closed a couple of months ago. Luciferous May 2020 #27

marble falls

(56,359 posts)
1. They go into and out of business/bankruptcy with regularity since the seventies ...
Tue May 19, 2020, 11:46 PM
May 2020

some investment bankers will pick it up and spin it back out after picking its bones, I think Bane Capital has had them at least once.

Warpy

(110,913 posts)
5. Great place to shop in the 60s
Tue May 19, 2020, 11:56 PM
May 2020

if you didn't want to decorate your slumburbian apartment like everybody else.

Another bit of my youth has faded away thanks for vulture capitalism.

catchnrelease

(1,942 posts)
8. It used to be great
Wed May 20, 2020, 12:06 AM
May 2020

I bought tons of 'funky' stuff there in those days. I loved it. Then in the last few decades it turned into a more upscale kind of merchandise store. The things they have now are too sterile for my taste. Cost Plus is like the old Pier 1 and I still love to wander through there to see what I don't need, lol. Sad.

Bengus81

(6,907 posts)
19. They opened one in Wichita around 68' if I remember right
Wed May 20, 2020, 08:54 AM
May 2020

I was too young to be a consumer but I was thinking they had some kind of Pier look on the outside with wood plank walk and the big 3 inch rope. It was here for 10-15 years and then disappeared.

salin

(48,954 posts)
4. Back in late Feb/early Mar. our local Pier 1 was having a going out of business sale.
Tue May 19, 2020, 11:54 PM
May 2020

Store had been there since the early 80s. I assumed the whole business was winding down before shutdowns started around the country.

I_UndergroundPanther

(12,452 posts)
9. Pier one
Wed May 20, 2020, 12:10 AM
May 2020

One year sold gigantic metal forks and spoons.
I so wanted a fork and spoon,couldn't afford it
The spoon was so big I could sit in it!

liberalguilt57

(89 posts)
13. It was a little slice of heaven at Christmas time
Wed May 20, 2020, 01:26 AM
May 2020

At the end of the Christmas shopping season every year, the associates in many stores get more and more overwhelmed with the customers, and can get a little short with people. But, for some reason, the one place you could depend on the staff being really friendly and sunny— even right before Christmas Eve — was at Pier 1.
The best product they used to have was their compilation CDs. They were great to play in the car back in the day. And when I think of Pier 1, I think of the smell of ginger peach candles. Nothing on this earth like it. The store used to be a great place for stocking stuffers… But, what everybody says on this thread is correct: the place has gotten too expensive, and much less funky.

Response to Zorro (Original post)

Talitha

(6,479 posts)
15. Damn, that store has stuff I've NEVER seen anywhere else.
Wed May 20, 2020, 02:42 AM
May 2020

Example: after decades, my sister finally went online and got an email account. Her email address had something to do with pigs flying, LOL.

So what did I see at Pier 1?

Coffeee mugs with a winged Pig.

I bought 2 of them and shipped them off ASAP - she LOVED them!

And on a shelf above me to the right is a golden Giraffe (my favorite animal) meditating in a lotus position.

Another Pier 1 purchase.

Gonna miss you something terrible, Pier 1 !!!!

DonaldsRump

(7,715 posts)
16. I remember going there with my mom
Wed May 20, 2020, 05:59 AM
May 2020

It was super-exotic, at least for me, back then.

Hope it survives in some form.

llmart

(15,501 posts)
18. Want an alternative?
Wed May 20, 2020, 07:56 AM
May 2020

They don't have many stores, but you could probably find some exotic/interesting things at Ten Thousand Villages.

JI7

(89,182 posts)
17. Do these places need to open up so many locations ? I feel like many businesses
Wed May 20, 2020, 07:00 AM
May 2020

that went bankrupt and closed could have done ok if they didn't open up so many places .

Especially the department stores.

Xolodno

(6,341 posts)
26. Marketing/Sales departments often don't talk to the Pricing Departments.
Wed May 20, 2020, 08:21 PM
May 2020

More Stores = More Sales = Win and nice slides for the CEO.

If the stores are unprofitable...not the Marketing department's problem. That's up to pricing/product management who often provide the not so nice slides. And they are not listened too until bank accounts go red...or worse, its to late.

renate

(13,776 posts)
23. you just nailed why this news makes me sad/nostalgic!
Wed May 20, 2020, 03:44 PM
May 2020

Yes! I'm sure that if I got a whiff of a 1970s Pier One again, I'd be right back in the store on University Avenue.

BillyBobBrilliant

(805 posts)
21. I used to love to go
Wed May 20, 2020, 09:48 AM
May 2020

to Pier 1 when I was a young Hippie in the late 60s and the early 70s. Incense, sandals, Batiks, stash boxes, et al.
When I revisited the stores in the 90s and beyond, I was aghast at the commericalization.
I shifted to Cost Plus World Market, which resembles the old Pier 1 model.

The Mouth

(3,123 posts)
22. As with seemingly every other store
Wed May 20, 2020, 02:56 PM
May 2020

STICK TO WHAT YOU STARTED WITH.

Them, Restoration Hardware, just keep doing what you did; I do NOT want any retailer I deal with to change; sell what you've always sold, preferable in the same place in the same store.

These places start as something funky and cool, and then go all yupscale. Give me a store that has the same item, on the same shelf, as they did in the 60's or 70's and I'll be a loyal customer. Change sucks when it comes to my shopping.

Mosby

(16,168 posts)
25. I got a great deal on a dining room table a couple years ago
Wed May 20, 2020, 05:11 PM
May 2020

Saved a thousand dollars.

I got the chairs across the street at cost plus. Didn't get much of a deal on those, but with furniture, you do pay for quality.

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