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
marble falls
(56,359 posts)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.
OAITW r.2.0
(23,862 posts)cos dem
(895 posts)Bane Capital seems very appropriate.
calimary
(80,700 posts)Warpy
(110,913 posts)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)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)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)Store had been there since the early 80s. I assumed the whole business was winding down before shutdowns started around the country.
Demovictory9
(32,324 posts)applegrove
(118,022 posts)Phoenix61
(16,954 posts)cool store with reasonable prices to really overpriced.
This is why they are failing.
I_UndergroundPanther
(12,452 posts)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!
Demovictory9
(32,324 posts)liberalguilt57
(89 posts)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)
liberalguilt57 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Talitha
(6,479 posts)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)It was super-exotic, at least for me, back then.
Hope it survives in some form.
llmart
(15,501 posts)They don't have many stores, but you could probably find some exotic/interesting things at Ten Thousand Villages.
JI7
(89,182 posts)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)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.
demmiblue
(36,751 posts)I always loved the smell of Pier 1, among other things.
renate
(13,776 posts)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)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)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)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.