Companies like Pier 1 will usually approach a large discount retailer to buy their inventory. There used to be a company here in New England called Building 19. Their motto was “good stuff cheap”. They would buy close outs like this. Maybe a company like “Ollies” will buy all their stock at $.10/dollar.
Overstock.com may also be interested in their entire inventory.
For a liquidation company, this makes more sense than keeping stores open, paying employees, electricity, insurance, etc.
True, though it might turn out to be liquidate-in-place. The report was they want to auction off the IP by late June. If it's not bankruptcy they can do whatever they want and be quick about it.