Pandemic claims Fresno, Visalia stores of Texas-based discount home-decor chain
Tuesday Morning, a discount retailer of brand-name closeout home decor, plans to close its stores in Fresno and Visalia as part of a first wave of closures nationwide blamed on financial troubles springing from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dallas-based company filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition Wednesday in a federal court in Texas, outlining plans to begin closing 230 of its 687 stores nationwide. The first wave of store-closing sales, including in Fresno and Visalia, could begin as soon as June 8, according to court documents.
The company was founded in 1974 in Texas.
Tuesday Morning’s Fresno store, which opened in about 2004, occupies 10,000 square feet of space in a shopping center at the southeast corner of Blackstone and Barstow avenues in north Fresno. The Visalia store, in the Packwood Creek Shopping Center on South Mooney Boulevard, is about 12,000 square feet.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Debtors have faced unprecedented challenges including rapidly declining sales at their retail locations,” the company’s attorneys state in court documents. To confront the shrinking sales and revenue, the company “ultimately determined that it is appropriate to close and wind down certain store locations … to increase liquidity, maximize cost savings, and strengthen the company’s overall financial position.”
In its bankruptcy petition, the company reported total assets of $92 million and debts amounting to more than $88.3 million.
The Fresno and Visalia stores are among 17 California locations identified among the “Wave 1 closing stores” in the court documents. A hearing on the company’s motion to approve procedures for the store closing sales was held Thursday, but an order for approval was not yet granted by Friday.
Court documents indicate that the company weighed individual store profitability and recent sales trends, as well as location and the potential to renegotiate store leases.
In its motion for approval of the sales, Tuesday Morning originally sought an order to allow the closeout sales to begin on Monday. The company later amended its request to start the process on June 8, and says in court documents it estimates sales will take approximately 10 weeks to complete.
Other California locations on the closure list include stores in Union City, Placentia, Pasadena, Westchester, Elk Grove, San Luis Obispo, San Clemente, Pleasant Hill, Culver City, Aliso Viejo, Eureka, Monterey, Pleasanton, Thousand Oaks and Vacaville.
Tuesday Morning joins a list of other national retail chains to file for bankruptcy recently, including J.C. Penney, Neiman Marcus, J. Crew and Stage stores.
