Pier 1 Imports to stay in business
Store remains open after closing announced, inventory depleted
Pier 1 Imports is not going out of business despite the closing announced weeks ago.
By Matt Erickson (Contact)
Thursday, April 12th, 2007
Two weeks ago banners outside of Pier 1 Imports, 3211 Iowa St., announced that the store was closing. But now, a sign in the window says “Now accepting applications.”
Earlier this year, the store’s employees heard from the Pier 1 corporate office that the store would close on April 15. But at the beginning of this month, the employees heard a different message; the store would remain open.
Photo by Lisa Lipovac
Now, after the store sold nearly all its merchandise, and even many of its shelves and light fixtures, and many of its employees found new jobs, the store must essentially start anew.
Kristen Byington, Lawrence senior, has worked at Pier 1 since 2003. She said the store would start re-stocking on Friday.
“Pretty much right now, the back half of the store is completely empty,” she said. “We do have some of the shelves still up.”
Byington, an assistant manager, said all but three or four of the store’s employees had left or would leave soon. She said that after she heard the store would be closing, she decided she wanted to use the summer to look for a full-time job after graduating. Now she will leave Pier 1 at the end of the month.
She said both employees and customers were surprised by the news that the store would stay open.
“Business has been pretty slow because a lot of people thought that we were closing,” Byington said. “Hopefully, over time people will realize that we’re staying open and they’ll come back in.”
Whitney Rogers, Pier 1 public relations coordinator, declined to comment on the reasons for the decision to keep the Lawrence store open.
“I can tell you Pier 1 continually reviews new and existing store locations, to make sure we’re operating as efficiently as possible,” Rogers said.
Pier 1 hired a new CEO, Alex Smith, earlier this year. According to a release from the company, Pier 1’s sales last year fell by 8.6 percent from the previous year, though sales during the month of February rose 14.3 percent from the year earlier.
Byington said she had been told the company’s new CEO decided to save some stores the company had planned to close.
Kansan staff writer Matt Erickson can be contacted at merickson@kansan.com.
— Edited by Jyl Unruh
Discussion
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Last week sometime, my wife was approached by a pier 1 employee or head hunter. They was offering her a job with Pier 1. Is Pier 1 going to be in business long enough for her to consider taking it on for a new career?
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