Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Crafts and fabric retailer Joann Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection last month for the second time in less than a year, said in court papers Wednesday that it was closing 533 of its 850 stores nationwide, including 20 in Indiana.
Among the stores designated for closure in bankruptcy filings are two in Indianapolis: one at 1361 W. 86th St. and another at 10030 E. Washington St.
The closure list also includes Joann stores in Bloomington, Columbus, Kokomo, Muncie and Richmond.
Not on the closure list are central Indiana stores at 8714 Castle Creek Parkway E. Drive in Indianapolis, at Avon Town Square in Avon, and at Greenwood Park Mall in Greenwood.
Joann first filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2024, as consumers continued to cut back on discretionary spending and some pandemic-era hobbies. It listed more than $2.44 billion in total debts versus about $2.26 billion in total assets in the Chapter 11 petition.
The Hudson, Ohio-based retailer, founded in 1943, filed for a second bankruptcy in mid-January in order to quickly find a buyer willing to rescue the company from liquidation.
Joann’s debt position became untenable quickly after it emerged from its first bankruptcy process as “unanticipated inventory challenges” added to the pressures of a “sluggish retail economy,” interim CEO Michael Prendergast said in a court filing.
Closing locations will “ensure the best path forward” as it looks for a buyer, the company said in a statement on its restructuring website. The 533 stores on the closure list span 48 states, with California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania among those losing the most locations.
The company did not say how many employees will lose their jobs because of the closures.
The company attempted to improve its inventory and profitability, but it had a hard time finding enough cash to maintain operations, it said in bankruptcy court filings last month. Joann had $615.7 million in total funded debt obligations and just $8.4 million in cash on hand, according to court documents.
Gordon Brothers Retail Partners, a lender that has been involved with a number of troubled retailers, most recently Big Lots, put forth an initial bid for Joann. The retail chain has said it is hoping for additional offers.
Joann is among a string of specialty retailers to file for bankruptcy or announce store closures in recent months. In addition to grappling with a comedown after a pandemic spending boom fueled by homebound consumers, niche retailers face pressure from bigger, more efficient rivals such as Amazon and Walmart, as well as e-commerce sites such as Shein and Temu.
Store closures in 2024 reached 7,325, the highest number recorded since 2020, which was close to 10,000 stores, according to a recent report from Coresight Research. The retail data firm projects that 15,000 stores will close this year as more retailers file for bankruptcy, liquidate and cull underperforming locations.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.
I was just in the Greenwood location over the weekend and for the first time ever, I walked out empty-handed. There wasn’t inventory in many places but in others it was cluttered and very, very dirty.
Yep. My wife and I found the same before Christmas at the Avon store next to Target and Dick’s. When she asked about it, a clerk responded that they can’t find the people to work. When she said she’d be willing to take a low-pay part-time job to help them at least get inventory on the shelves, not left in boxes and on hand trucks in the aisles, the clerk responded in a very negative way something like, “That’s not how it works. If you work here you have to work the registers, take complaints, shelve the inventory, blah blah blah.” So, we’re not surprised.
And what’s funny is that Greenwood and Avon weren’t on the list, apparently, for closure.
That’s what the article says. They had inventory issues.
Is there a private equity vulture investor involved ? AKA corporate undertaker ?
Yes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo-Ann_Stores