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134-year-old home goods chain files for bankruptcy - more than 500 stores at risk
Home and furniture retailer Conn's has filed for bankruptcy - putting hundreds of stores at risk.
In recent days, the Texas-based chain said it was closing 73 of its stores across 13 states while it considered bankruptcy.
Then on Tuesday it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with debts of more than $1 billion, though it also said it had assets - such as stock and stores - worth that mount too.
The filing allows it to keep operating while it liquidates stores.
The closures so far represent 13 percent of its 553 total locations. There are fears the bankruptcy will lead to even more - also under the Badcock Home Furniture & More banner, a brand it bought last year.
A Conn's HomePlus store in Knoxville, Tennessee on Thursday, March 26, 2015. This store will close pending a last minute sale
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 struggled with growing brick-and-mortar footprint.
That led to it buying W.S. Badcock - another home goods chain that operates under then Badcock Home Furniture & More banner - in December 2023. That boosted the store numbers dramatically.
But that 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.
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 bankruptcy but didn't receive an immediate response.
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
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.
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.