Barneys, Pier 1 And Other Iconic-But-Bankrupt Retailers Are Coming Back To Life

Plenty of famous retail chains have collapsed both before and during a pandemic that has slammed brick-and-mortar stores, but some iconic names like Pier 1, Barneys New York and others are coming back – at least in some fashion.

Barneys became the latest brand to rise from the dead recently when the retailer reopened as “Barneys at Saks,” a store within a store at the flagship Manhattan site of its former rival, Saks Fifth Avenue. A standalone Barneys at Saks will also open next week in toney Greenwich, Connecticut, with additional sites planned for the future.

“We are excited to bring Barneys at Saks to life in a way that is relevant for today’s luxury consumer, with a strong focus on discovery and the unexpected,” Saks Chief Merchant Tracy Margolies said in a statement announcing the moves. “Barneys at Saks will offer unparalleled fashion from a wide range of emerging brands, alongside labels that Saks customers already know and love.”

Taking up 54,000 square feet on the fifth floor of a Saks store a few blocks from Barneys’ former location, the new operation will feature apparel from Fear of God and other cutting-edge clothing lines. Prior to its early 2020 wind-down, Barneys had been known for giving designers like Giorgio Armani and Christian Louboutin their first big breaks.

However, Barneys fell into bankruptcy in 2019, due in part to rising rents at its Manhattan and Los Angeles stores. Authentic Brands Group, a firm that buys the rights to distressed brand names and typically licenses them out, purchased the company’s intellectual property for $271.4 million in 2019, then cut a deal to bring the name back at Saks.

“We are excited to activate the next phase of our Barneys New York strategy in the form of a new shopping experience at Saks,” Authentic Brands’ Chief Brand Office Jarrod Weber said. “The launch of Barneys at Saks is a seminal moment to reignite the brand for the future.”

Barneys also operates six stores and five outlets in Japan and expects to expand into South Korea and China over the next two years.

Pier 1, Modell’s and Radio Shack Live On (In Cyberspace)

Other well-known brands have died in the physical world, but reopened under new owners as online-only storefronts.

Retail Ecommerce Ventures (REV), a company headed by Alex Mehr – co-founder of dating app Zoosk – has been at the forefront of buying up defunct retail names (often out of bankruptcy) and reopening them as eCommerce sites. For example, REV has recently purchased the names and other intellectual property of RadioShack, Pier 1, Dressbarn, Linens ‘n Things and Modell’s Sporting Goods.

Tai Lopez, REV’s other co-founder, told NBC News that retail’s COVID-triggered downturn “created an opportunity to buy really good brands that we felt had just been victim to the times, but could be brought online.”

The company turns once-struggling brands around by running them lean and mean on the internet. For instance, executives told NBC that Dressbarn has about 30 employees today versus the 9,000 that the chain had as a brick-and-mortar operation at the time it filed for bankruptcy.

Toys ‘R’ Us and Charming Charlie Are Back, Small Time

Other famous chains have reopened with a mix of online sales and vastly reduced brick-and-mortar footprints.

For example, Toys “R” Us had some 1,800 sites around the world at its height, but radically shrunk after filing for Chapter 11 in 2017. The chain eventually closed all U.S. stores and shuttered, sold or licensed away most of its overseas operations.

A slimmed-down version of the U.S. chain emerged from bankruptcy in 2019, but only has two stores so far – one in Houston and another in a New Jersey suburb of New York City.

Similarly, Charming Charlie, a popular women’s apparel and accessories chain that fell into bankruptcy in 2019, is undergoing a slimmed-down reboot. Known for scarves, handbags and groupings by color, the chain once had some 400 sites worldwide, but wrote in its bankruptcy filing that it faced “unsustainable operating expenses, including onerous leases.”

Founder Charlie Chanaratsopon eventually bought the store’s name and the contact list for its seven-million-member loyalty club and started operations again this fall, but at a much smaller scale. Charming Charlie currently has six stores, and Chanaratsopon told PYMNTS earlier this month that he hopes to build back up to 50 to 75 locations. “In this age of [omnichannel] retail, we see an opportunity for the brand to thrive in the online ecosystem and select retail locations across the country,” he said.