Pier 1 Imports closing nearly half of stores as sales falter

AP via WPXI ^ | January 6, 2020

[cyclotic]

A family from our church moved to an Alaskan interior village to work as missionaries. Total population is about 400. The only access is by boat or plane. (this time of year, I guess you can include sled dogs or snow machines.

Amazon Prime actually works there for them

[kelly4c]

Yep, and personally that’s a big enough problem to put me off Amazon. I like authentic products and ones that have been opened and airing out on a shelf or hanger for a bit not directly from overseas sweatshops.

[moovova]

Thank you. Sounds like I can continue feeding my Amazon fix.

[moovova]

That’s huge. Who needs to live “in” civilization when Amazon will deliver civilization to your doorstep!

[cyclotic]

I wish I had a good lumberyard closer to me. Nearest independent hardware is 15 miles. Home Depot is 2 blocks.

I agree on quality.

The last time I had to buy a lot of trim, I was kicking through a Habitat for Humanity Restore. They had a full pallet of the baseboard trim I needed for something like $.15 a foot. I trimmed out my whole finished basement for about $50

[Jane Long]

That is crazy.

Amazing, but crazy.

[TheNext]

Hey Sears, Kmart, Pier 1 ...

destroyed by internet sales ...

... learn to code.

[cyclotic]

Yea, I was shocked when I heard that. The world is truly getting smaller.

Our church wanted to send the family some gifts for Christmas. They decided it was best to just send them Amazon gift cards.

Their village is an Iditarod checkpoint. I follow the race and my buddy sent me the Official Volunteer hat they gave him for helping at the checkpoint. It arrived just 3-4 days after the sled teams left and the race was still going on. Amazing

[Dr. Sivana]

Pard, I literally cannot do that most of the time thanks to choices my local retailers have made. For instance, nobody around here stocks tall women's clothing?

I had the exact opposite problem. I had been ordering wide shoes for men online from Hitchcock for years. I ordered the same model shoe (different color) in the same size, and they changed the size on me. They refused to acknowledge their fault, and though I received a refund on the shoes, I paid shipping both ways. They were supposed to pay return shipping but never did. They have permanently lost my business. In the meantime, I found a wide shoe store in nearby Mesa, AZ, and found a pair of walking shoes that fit perfectly. On-line is not the best for everything.

P.S. my wife agrees with you about the Tall Women's clothing.

[Mr. Jeeves]

You've put your finger on the real problem for brick-and-mortar retail going back decades - 90% of its owners/managers/employees have no idea what they are doing. They go out of business and blame Amazon, instead of their own poor customer service and incompetent merchandise buying.

A good local store selling non-commodity products (this is an important choice fro new owners to make) should be able to run rings around any online retailer, becoming a trusted resource for its customers.

[cuban leaf]

Amazon makes living in the sticks as convenient as living in the City - at least for us. The days of counting on the Sears catalog and the monthly trip to the “big town” are a thing of the past.

[TheNext]

Amazon outright stole my $200. They never returned it.

I figured it would take years to break even.

Walmart would return the stolen money asap.

You just wait until Amazon steals hundreds of dollars from you. I have never seen such brazen theft. See how many years break even is ...

[Sans-Culotte]

My favorite store. Beautiful decor.

My wife and I love Pier 1. They have lots of great home decor stuff. We got the stools for our kitchen area bar from them.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Amazon is the Sears Catalog of today, only they’re not shipping complete house building kits. Yet.

[cuban leaf]

:)

They are also a heck of a lot faster and returns are so easy that, even as a man I don’t hate it that much. :)

I just ordered a Schiit DAC for listening to my TV, CD’s and streaming on my vintage stereo system. :)

[Seruzawa]

Big box stores often get specially built stuff ( read cheaper) than the same product elsewhere. For example the Moen faucets at Home Depot have internal plastic parts that you don’t get at a local hardware store. Same same Behr paints.

Kirkland AA batteries at Costco have half the life of Duracells but you don’t save that much on the Kirklands. Kirklands socks fall apart faster than other brand socks.

Buyer beware.

[Sans-Culotte]

BUT we actually do find things to buy at Cost Plus.

I wonder if Cost Plus/World Market has put a dent in Pier 1? My wife and I used to go to Cost Plus/World Market about every week until the one nearest us closed down. They are opening one even nearer to us this year which we plan to visit often. They are a great source for stocking stuffers during the Holidays.

[angcat]

I remember the one in Yonkers sold clothes back in the 80’s.

[angcat]

We hardly eat out. My husband is a great cook and he hate’s chain food.

[Sans-Culotte]

For instance, nobody around here stocks tall women's clothing?

Clothing stores have always been like that. One reason I quickly adjusted to buying things online is that I have always had trouble finding men's clothing that was tall enough for me (I'm 6''5"). I was ordering out of catalogs like Eddie Bauer and Lands End for years before Al Gore invented the internet. I don't really blame stores for not carrying sizes they cannot sell to 80% of their customers. Even a lot of online retailers do not sell tall clothing.

Gay C, Penny used to have a pretty good Tall Men section in their stores until their CEO changed the way all the stores were laid out several years ago. I would rather buy from actual stores if I can.