A POPULAR Staten Island store is set to shutter for good in just over a week, it has been revealed.
The Container Store in New Springville will close down on February 16, despite defiant words from the company’s CEO just months ago.
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Speaking last December Satish Malhotra insisted: “The Container Store is here to stay,” even though the company had just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“Our strategy is sound, and we believe the steps we are taking today will allow us to continue to advance our business, deepen customer relationships, expand our reach, and strengthen our capabilities,” he added.
The company has now exited bankruptcy, completed its financial restructuring and “implemented its Plan of Reorganization”, according to a press release from the retailer issued in January.
The closure of the brand’s only Staten Island store will leave nine locations across New York and New Jersey.
Read more on store closures
According to news website silive.com a spokesperson for The Container Store claimed the closure is not part of the Chapter 11 process but is “a normal course closure.”
The location opened in 2017 – it was the sixth in New York and the 90th in the US, reported silive.com
Founded in the late 70s, The Container Store enjoyed prosperity throughout the following decades.
A specialist in storage products, it sells organizational solutions for the home, offices and travel, including baskets, shelving, drawer dividers and closet systems.
However the Texas-based retailer has struggled since the pandemic and has been unprofitable for the past two years.
Rising mortgage rates and increased real estate prices are also thought to have had a negative impact on sales.
The company reported losses of around $10 million at the end of last September.
Revenue fell by 10.5% last year, compared to 2023 and store sales dropped by around 12.5%.
It currently has 102 stores across the US.
RETAIL CLOSURES
The Container Store is not the only retailer to be hit by bankruptcy in the past year.
US braces for ‘45,000 store closures’
Some 45,000 bricks-and-mortar stores could close in the next five years, experts have warned.
Several major retailers have announced store closures or gone out of business altogether in recent years.
In 2023, chains such as Foot Locker announced plans to close up to 400 outlets by 2026.
While, other well-known retailers like Tuesday Morning and Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
Bed Bath & Beyond has closed all of its brick-and-mortar stores and is now an online-only retailer.
The most affected retailers have been clothing, consumer electronics, sporting goods, hobby, book, music, and home furnishing stores since the start of 2019.
UBS has predicted the total number of retail stores will drop by 45k from 958k to 913k.
Despite that, the report says that certain stores should thrive while others decline.
It said retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, and Target, could be among the winners.
Party City announced it was shuttering all of its locations after filing for bankruptcy a second time last December.
All 750 of its party supply stores across the country were expected to close down for good.
It had previously filed for and exited bankruptcy in 2023.
According to a statement from the company at the time:
“The decision was made following exhaustive efforts by the company to find a path forward that would allow continued operations in an immensely challenging environment driven by inflationary pressures on costs and consumer spending, among other factors.”
Discount chain Big Lots is also disappearing from the US retail landscape after filing for bankruptcy last September.
It was saved in a last-minute deal by Gordon Brothers Retail Partners in December, but hundreds of its stores have still closed.
As part of the deal Variety Wholesalers is taking on 200 to 400 locations and these will continue to operate under the Big Lots banner.
Prominent furniture retailer Conn’s HomePlus also filed for bankruptcy in 2024.
