10 Big-Name Stores That Have Closed in the Past Decade

New York & Co.

RTW Retailwinds, the company father of women’s fashion retailer New York & Co., decided to file for bankruptcy in 2020, after losing a lot of money and defaulting on payments to landlords and vendors in the wake of Covid-19 closings. The company shut all 380 stores and got rid of its e-commerce business to Sunrise Brands.

Pier 1 Imports

Pier 1 filed for bankruptcy a year ago, right before the lockdown, but the company hoped it will find a buyer to breathe some life into its struggles. However, a couple of months later, Pier 1 declared that its final decision is to close all stores and liquidate instead, blaming all the uncertainty of a post-Covid world in the air. You can find it now as an online-only retailer.

Stage Stores

Rural America also needs to go shopping, and that could have been easily solved at Stage Stores, which was focused on small-town locations, instead of larger cities that already had many options.

Stage Stores was a department store and a discounter at the same time, and it ran many chains, such as Goody’s, Palais Royal, Peebles, and Gordmans. However, all of these stores got liquidated and shot down in the summer of 2020, right after the pandemic started ruining the majority of businesses.

Modell’s Sporting Goods

For over 130 years in the business, Modell’s Sporting Goods filed for Chapter 11 at the beginning of 2021, after its failed attempts to sell the chain. Modell’s suffered terrible blows on many levels, including a decline in youth sports, tougher competition from big-box stores, and the imminent rise of e-commerce.

Eventually, the pandemic lead the chain to stop its going-out-of-business sales in over 150 stores.

Art Van Furniture

The famous Midwestern furniture and mattress chain decided to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early March of 2020, right before the lockdown. Of course, online competitors such as Wayfair did nothing but hurt the business even more, not to mention all the other factors such as furniture tariffs, rapid expansion, but also executive turnover. Eventually, the company liquidated and shut down all of its 170 stores.

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