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National furniture and homeware chain abruptly shuts more than 70 stores amid bankruptcy rumors
Home and furniture retailer Conn's is closing 71 of its stores across 13 states.
The move comes after a report in Bloomberg that the company is weeks away from filing for bankruptcy.
The closures represent 13 percent of its 553 total locations. The states losing stores include Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
Florida and Texas, the two biggest states affected, are losing 18 and nine stores, respectively.
Bloomberg reported late last week that the upcoming rash of closures would target around 100 stores, 30 of which would be stores operating under the banner of home goods retailer W.S. Badcock.
Conn's acquired it last year to try to expand its reach, but so far, none of the shuttered stores carry the Badcock name. If they do close, that would take the total to 100.
A Conn's HomePlus store in Knoxville, Tennessee on Thursday, March 26, 2015. This store will close pending a last minute sale
Following three straight years of financial losses amid rising inflation, Conn's is reportedly considering liquidating its inventory.
Company leaders have been meeting with key investors in hopes of locking down cash to help fund a possible bankruptcy filing, Bloomberg reported.
The plans to file are not yet final and are subject to change.
Headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, Conn's has been around in some form for 134 years.
First, it was a plumbing and heating company and in 1933 Carroll Wayne Conn, Sr. acquired the store, giving Conn's its modern day namesake.
The store first waded into retail with refrigerators in 1937, but nowadays it sells everything from home appliances to TVs to furniture and much more.
For years now, Conn's has appeared to struggle with its growing brick-and-mortar footprint, culminating in the Badcock acquisition in December 2023 that has saddled the company with debt and high overhead costs, Bloomberg reported.
But it may have been a last ditch effort to juice the numbers, which weren't looking good at the end of last year.
Conn's first waded into retail with refrigerators in 1937, but nowadays it sells everything from home appliances to TVs to furniture and much more
Conn's has appeared to struggle with its growing brick-and-mortar footprint, culminating in the Badcock acquisition in December 2023 that has saddled the company with debt and high overhead costs, Bloomberg reported
In an April disclosure, Conn's announced it finished out 2023 with a year-over-year net loss of almost $77 million.
At the time, president and CEO Norm Miller said he was 'confident that the Badcock transaction...will position us to emerge stronger and more resilient than ever before.'
Another indication of the turmoil behind the scenes came on June 26, when Conn's admitted it had fallen into noncompliance with Nasdaq.
This was because it hadn't yet filed its financials for the quarter ending on April 30, the deadline required by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
This didn't affect the company's ability to trade on the stock market, but it has until August 19 to regain compliance.
Conn's shares have been in free fall for over three years, down an astonishing 98 percent since June 2021.
DailyMail.com approached Conn's for comment on the closures and potential bankruptcy but didn't receive an immediate response.
The most recent woes Conn's is facing come amid a widespread 'retail apocalypse' that is seeing bricks-and-mortar stores struggle to combat rampant theft and increasingly tight margins.
By the end of April, US retailers had announced the closure of almost 2,600 stores in 2024.
Walmart, the largest retailer in the US, has shut 11 so far this year.
Earlier in April, dollar store 99 Cents Only said it will shutter ALL its 371 shops, while Best Buy closed ten in March.
Dollar Tree is closing 1,000, Macy's 150 - a third of its total - and drug store Rite Aid 77.
In recent months, there has been a spate of bankruptcies adding to store closures.
National coffee and upmarket grocery chain Foxtrot also said at the start of April it will shut all its stores with immediate effect - leaving staff and customers stunned.
Express - a mall staple - filed for bankruptcy in April and said it would shut 95 Express outlets alongside all of its UpWest stores.
At the start of May, Rue21 - the teen fashion chain that is a fixture in malls across America - also said it will shut all its 543 US stores.