Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by BillyGr »

pseudo3d wrote:They do seem to be a lot of smaller towns with small stores. While it wasn't the case at one time, it seems that despite the number of names, they only run one format per market (Palais Royal is Houston-exclusive, where they're located, Bealls is in Texas, probably due to confusion with Bealls-FL, Stage is everywhere else, haven't seen a post-bankruptcy Goody's in the wild)
Don't forget they also have Peebles, which has a fairly widespread area (we have them here in NY state, and I remember seeing one (before we had them here) on a trip in VA).

http://stores.stage.com/ gives a total of 828 stores, and lists 40 states with stores (though half the states only have single digit store counts).

They do vary somewhat in locations locally - the 3 closest spots one is a small city (in part of a former Ames) with a Walmart up the road but outside the city limits, a second is a moderate sized town (with both Walmart & Target, though they are on the "opposite" side of the town - the Peebles is in a building that was a local department store and several things since) and the third a smaller town (which happens to be the major shopping center for the county as much of it is quite rural - this one also in a part of a former Ames, with a WalMart and Kohl's in a plaza at the opposite end of the "shopping strip" but no Target).
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by storewanderer »

In Bartlesville, OK there are both a Goody's and a Stage. Both were still open a few years ago...

They are operating as Bealls in Nevada this time around... (in the 90's they used the Stage banner).

Their geography is interesting, I see they have a few stores in rural/eastern Oregon. I think Klamath Falls may be a former Gottschalks or part of a former Gottschalks. Winnemucca and Carson City, NV are both portions of former Gottschalks.
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by rwsandiego »

The news about Gordmans and HHGregg got me thinking about a trip I took back to Chicago a few years ago. Neither chain had stores in the area until somewhat recently. My brother and I were out and about and we passed both a Gordman's and an HHGregg. My brother had no idea the Gordman's was even there, let alone what type of store it was. It was located in the parking lot of a shopping center he and his wife frequented at least twice a week. His wife assumed it was some discount store based on the logo, but never shopped there. When we passed the HHGregg I asked him about it. He wasn't sure but thought it was an appliance store. By the way: we were on the way to Best Buy and Sears to look at TVs and washers.

I bring this up because both chains suffered a similar fate for similar reasons: expansion into unfamiliar markets without giving potential customers a reason to shop at their stores.
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by Brian Lutz »

A lot of stores like that don't seem to make any effort (at least on their storefronts) to explain what they are. I saw a Gordman's store down in Utah last year when I was down there, and had to look it up on the web to figure out what exactly it sells. The same goes for Tilly's, which I've seen in a number of locations in California. And if you hadn't see any of their advertising, would you have any clue what a Tuesday Morning store was?
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by storewanderer »

Maybe it would also help if these people built windows on their storefronts so you could easily tell what was inside when driving/walking by...

I don't know why the lack of windows on so many strip malls built in the 90's and 00's. I think we got a little better on stores building with windows in the 10's (at least some of the grocers like Raleys and Kroger have started to do new builds with some windows)... I don't know if they think they are casinos and if people see outside they may not stay in as long or what.
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by SamSpade »

Update to this story, all Stage store names are celebrating "final black friday at..." "final Christmas sale at..."
and apparently all are doing a soft liquidation to close and then reopen as Gordman's.

The new Gordman's locations will be operated similar to Ross, TJMaxx, Marshalls, Macy's Backstage, Nordstrom Rack, Burlington -
"new arrivals weekly" of rotating merchandise in apparel and home categories.

Another side of this, the stores will no longer be permitted to sell Estee Lauder's cosmetics, so no more Clinique or Estee Lauder counters in these stores.
https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news ... 869232.php
http://www.mohavedailynews.com/news/bhc ... 6d1bc.html
Approximately 83% of sales in our department stores consist of national brands such as Adidas, Calvin Klein, Carters,
Chaps, Clinique, Dockers, Estee Lauder, G by Guess, Izod, Jessica Simpson, Levi’s, Nike, Nine West and Skechers, while the
remaining 17% of sales are private label merchandise.
TLDR: Stage is converting their "junior" department stores into off-price retailers and closing some locations as a result.
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by storewanderer »

Stage has been doing a "store closing sale" since about August. It started at 40% off all clothing items and 10% off home items and they quit sending out coupons. They frequently did 50% off all items (including home items) anyway so this was not much of a deal. At some point between then and now, it turned into 50% off store closing on all clothing.

What they are actually doing is converting the stores to Gordmans and staying open in the process. The location I visit has probably 2x the inventory now as it had before they announced the "store closing," as they have installed higher shelving and the racks are much more full than before. They were already primarily private label product at this particular location (which had been very lightly stocked for the past couple of years).

It will be interesting to see how this works out for them. Based on their financials, what they were doing before was obviously not working. An off price format with a larger assortment of lower cost items should play well in these rural areas where they operate stores. Many of their markets are too small for Ross or TJ Maxx/Marshalls to be interested in.
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by storewanderer »

Not entirely sure what is happening here now...

https://footwearnews.com/2020/business/ ... 202936116/

https://www.syracuse.com/business/2020/ ... nwide.html

Quite a few locations were slated to convert from Stage banners to Gordmans this month...

Also it appears they are closing a lot of the original Gordmans stores that they bought out of bankruptcy. Those were probably too much square footage for them anyway.
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: March 8th, 2020, 12:53 pm Not entirely sure what is happening here now...

https://footwearnews.com/2020/business/ ... 202936116/

https://www.syracuse.com/business/2020/ ... nwide.html
Sounds like they are headed towards bankruptcy themselves and Gordman's was a poorly executed last-ditch effort as funds were already running dry.
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Re: Gordmans declares bankruptcy, will liquidate stores

Post by storewanderer »

I actually tried to go to the Bealls in Gardnerville, NV today. The store appeared to be open with shoppers inside early this afternoon. I went to a couple other places in the shopping center then tried to go to Bealls before leaving. When I approached the doors which by this point it was closer to mid-afternoon, there were two handwritten notes saying the store is closed for conversion to Gordman's. Those handwritten notes were absolutely NOT there 45 minutes-1 hour prior when I first walked past the store and observed what I assume were customers inside shopping. I think they closed the store at 2 PM or something weird.

It is possible it was closed all day and they just so happened to handwrite these signs and put them up in the middle of the day, and the people I saw through the windows who appeared to be shopping may have been employees and not customers I guess.

What a weird situation.

A banner is up in the parking lot saying that Gordmans is coming March 17.
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