Pier 1 Imports is planning to close nearly half of its 942 stores in the US and Canada, as well as some distribution centers. Monday's announcement—meaning layoffs for 300 people, or about 40%, of staff at its headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas, per Bloomberg—came as the company reported a 13% decline in quarterly sales for a loss of $59 million, reports the New York Times. CEO and CFO Robert Riesbeck said the closures of 450 stores was "a necessary business decision" that would "enable us to move forward with an appropriately sized store footprint and operating structure as an omni-channel retailer."
Still, a bankruptcy plan has been sketched. The company, launched in California in 1962, reported that sales at stores open for at least a year had dropped 11% from the previous year despite new marketing efforts, per CNN. And "as Pier 1's losses deepen, the planned large-scale store closures and cost cuts will likely be insufficient to turn around the business in time to address the company's looming debt maturities, making restructuring or bankruptcy highly likely scenarios," one analyst tells Bloomberg. Shares fell 17% to about $5 with the news. That's down from $300 a share in 2015, per CNN. (More retail stores stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
