Nov 18 (Reuters) – U.S. casual clothing retailer Steve & Barry’s is set to announce this week it will go out of business, the Wall Street Journal said, citing two people familiar with the situation.

Rest of story: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSBNG11593120081118

Not so fortunate is White Oak Mall in Springfield. Simon split up the lower level of the former Wards in Linen’N Things and World Market (Dicks has the top level). Both are now gone. Not too may places want a half anchor location right now.

* Be advised that a good percentage of the cheap Chinese crap that you may fill your cart with will end up in a landfill within six months.

or

* Please be aware that by shopping at Walmart you will accelerate the demise of locally owned and any other businesses within a 10 mile radious.

Linens Asks to Begin Liquidation Sales at All Stores

JOAN VERDON, STAFF WRITER

October 8, 2008

There’s still life in Linens ‘n Things, the Clifton-based company insisted Tuesday, despite filing a request in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for permission to begin going-out-of-business sales at all of its 371 remaining stores.

A spokeswoman for the housewares retailer said Tuesday afternoon that the company plans to reveal the “stalking horse,” or lead bidder, for Linens today. “The company’s had several bidders be interested in the past few weeks, but the stalking horse is the one that actually stepped forward and made their offer,” the spokeswoman said. “This is still a fluid process,” she said, adding that the fate of the 33-year-old company is far from certain.

“There’s a number of other bidders who’ve expressed interest, and there will be a court-supervised auction Oct. 14, and that’s when the other bidders have an opportunity to emerge,” the spokeswoman said. “This isn’t a done deal.”

But analysts who follow the company have been betting for some time that Linens’ owners will decide that it’s time to throw in the towel, rather than keep the struggling company alive.

Linens parent company, Linens Holding Co., listed debts of $1.42 billion and assets of $1.74 billion as of Dec. 29, according to the Chapter 11 filing in May.

Linens, which had close to 600 stores and more than $2 billion in sales at its peak, was taken private in 2006 in a leveraged buyout by private equity firm Apollo Management LP. The new owners installed their own management team and announced a nine-year turnaround plan, just as the sub-prime mortgage crisis began to put the brakes on housing sales.

Linens had been fighting to hold its own against its chief rival, Union-based Bed Bath and Beyond Inc., and against competition from Wal-Mart Stores and Target, before the slowdown.

Michael Gries, Linens’ chief restructuring officer, told Judge Christopher Sontchi in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware on Tuesday that the company wants to start liquidation sales immediately to beat an expected wave of retail bankruptcies, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

Retail analyst Howard Davidowitz, however, said the fact that Linens may liquidate before Christmas is a sign of how badly the stores have been doing in recent months. “They were losing like 25 percent of their business every week,” said Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates, a national retail consulting and investment banking firm based in New York. “The company demonstrated in bankruptcy no ability to resuscitate themselves.

“When you are burning that much cash, what option do you have but to liquidate immediately to preserve any value for the creditors?” he said.

Linens faced a nearly impossible turnaround mission, Davidowitz said. “Home is the single worst segment of retailing,” he said, citing the Bombay Co. and Levitz bankruptcies and closings of Pier I and Home Depot stores.

Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter, in a note to investors Tuesday, wrote that Bed Bath and Beyond is well-positioned to gain market share if the expected Linens store closings occur.

The birth and death of Linens

1975 Founder Eugene Kalkin opens the first Linens ‘n Things store in West Orange.

1983 The chain is bought by Melville Corp., a retail conglomerate.

1996 Linens is spun off from Melville as a public company.

2006 Private equity firm Apollo Management LP buys Linens for $1.3 billion. New CEO announces a nine-year turnaround plan.

May 2008 Linens files for bankruptcy protection, says it will close some stores, but promises to reemerge smaller and more profitable.

I think Queen said it best, “Another one bights the dust.”

I’ll check on Menlo next time I’m there and if S&B’s closes there, maybe my Menlo fantasy of a Bloomingdale’s and/or Neiman Marcus expansion will come true now that there will be room.

They company website posts a response from the founders indicating how ’sorry’ they are that this happened, and how ‘concerned’ they are about the employees that were affected. Yeah, but there remorse seems to fall short of cracking open their wallets. This is not a case like Boscov’s where they did everything possible to keep from filing chapter 11.