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Things not going well for Brookstone

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By atomheartbevo
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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89810

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https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/02/news/companies/brookstone-bankruptcy/index.html

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Brookstone filed for bankruptcy and will close its remaining 101 mall stores.

The mall and airport seller, best known for massage chairs, quirky gadgets, and travel luggage, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court on Thursday. It was Brookstone's second bankruptcy round in four years.

The company will keep its 35 airport stores and website open and running while it attempts to find a buyer. 

It has secured a $30 million loan to finance operations during the sale. In a bankruptcy filing, Brookstone said it had liabilities totaling up to $500 million and assets between $50 to $100 million. 

Brookstone's CEO said in a statement that its airport and online businesses were successful, but an "extremely challenging retail environment at malls" forced the company to close its stores there.

h02CF2614

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 89810

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8 minutes ago, Paper_jam said:

Dammit

Malls are in a death spiral. Nothing but women's shoe stores as far as the eye can see. Broken up by the occasional overpriced chain jewelry shop.

There's a little hope.

https://money.cnn.com/2018/03/20/news/companies/kb-toys-toys-r-us/index.html

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Toys "R" Us is on its way out, but KB Toys is set to pop back up.

Strategic Marks, a company that buys and revitalizes defunct brands, owns the KB name and plans to open 1,000 pop-up KB Toys stores for Black Friday and the holiday shopping season.

"My assumption is that there's about half a billion dollars worth of toys that have been produced for Toys "R" Us with no place to go," said Strategic Marks president Ellia Kassoff, in a phone interview with CNNMoney. "That's a big, big void that we're hoping to fill up." 

Toys "R" Us, which filed for bankruptcy last year, announced last week that it expects to close all of its 735 stores in the US. Those closures will put 31,000 people out of work and hurt toy manufacturers that depended on the national retailer for distribution. 

Kassoff said he's been in contact with Hasbro Inc. (HAS)and Mattel, Inc. (MAT) and up to 200 smaller toy suppliers who are looking for new brick and mortar retailers. He said he plans to take advantage of a glut of toy manufacturers that have inventory but no place to sell it. 

To get a quick retail footprint, Kassoff said he's working with companies that specialize in holiday and pop-up retail, like Spencer Spirit Holdings Inc., Go! Retail Group, and Party City Holdco Inc. (PRTY)

"We're talking to companies that know how to do it, they have a methodology, they're used to rolling out stuff real quickly," he said. 

After the holiday shopping season ends, Kassoff will decide which of the pop-up stores will become permanent, based on their performance and whether he can negotiate a lease.

And I've seen some of those esports cafe things showing up in mall (Barton Creek has one now).

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RDCanecutter

RDCanecutter 26475

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14 minutes ago, Paper_jam said:

Dammit

Malls are in a death spiral. Nothing but women's shoe stores as far as the eye can see. Broken up by the occasional overpriced chain jewelry shop.

I like malls for all their fake architectural touches. I guess it's like when we went to Disneyworld, and my dad said "I bet on the inside of Cinderella's Castle it's all plywood and 2 by 4s". From that moment I want to bust inside the exhibits and see what was behind the stage props.

There's a fairly shi-shi mall down the way, if you look for it you can find the nasty un-airconditioned access hall behind all the stores and scamper along it like a Morlock. Fuck else is there to do.

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Incredulity

Incredulity 11683

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6 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

I like malls for all their fake architectural touches. I guess it's like when we went to Disneyworld, and my dad said "I bet on the inside of Cinderella's Castle it's all plywood and 2 by 4s". From that moment I want to bust inside the exhibits and see what was behind the stage props.

There's a fairly shi-shi mall down the way, if you look for it you can find the nasty un-airconditioned access hall behind all the stores and scamper along it like a Morlock. Fuck else is there to do.

Pop out of the hallway and drag an Eloi into the hall.

for the laughs.

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cmontexas

cmontexas 3283

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4 hours ago, RDCanecutter said:

I like malls for all their fake architectural touches. I guess it's like when we went to Disneyworld, and my dad said "I bet on the inside of Cinderella's Castle it's all plywood and 2 by 4s". From that moment I want to bust inside the exhibits and see what was behind the stage props.

There's a fairly shi-shi mall down the way, if you look for it you can find the nasty un-airconditioned access hall behind all the stores and scamper along it like a Morlock. Fuck else is there to do.

I used to deliver inside Hulen Mall when the regular guy was on vacation, and he had seven weeks a year so I got to know the inner workings of that mall and it's terrifying freight elevators better than I would like. Probably 90% shoe boxes. Only thing keeping most of the mall stores open is that the stores act as psuedo warehouses for the company websites so they ship a ton of stuff in and out

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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8 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I made a lot of money in high school hanging out near the main bathrooms at Sharpstown Mall in Houston.  Ticket scalpers.

Damone, is that you?  What do you hear on my Earth, Wind, & Fire tickets?

Another landmark American retailer bites the dust.  Which real estate "developer" will be dumb enough to build the last American shopping mall?  

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Stoogey

Stoogey 219

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8 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

I can remember when Brookstone was a catalog company, with a lot of unique and high-quality little tools and gimcracks.  Very cool "place" then.  The stores have been nothing but disappoint.

I can remember reading the Brookstone advertisements in Skymall magazine. There must be something about flying where a $250 automatic cat litter box almost makes sense. And I don't have a cat.

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52-80

52-80 19261

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11 hours ago, RiceOwl said:

I’m a big fan of “lifestyle centers” rather than malls.

For example, I could hang out at the new Legacy West development in Plano all day... The Stonebriar Mall, less than two miles away.... No thanks. 

 

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