120-year-old furniture chain to shut all 380 US stores in weeks – but will clear stock with massive bargains first

Badcock Home Furniture & More, a retailer based in the southern US, announced Tuesday that it will close all of its stores.

The 120-year-old chain is owned by Conn’s, which filed for bankruptcy last week amid nearly $2 billion in debt and high overhead costs, much of it tied to its acquisition of Badcock last year.

Badcock has more than 380 stores in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia.

It’s not yet clear when exactly they’ll close, but the home goods company has announced a “bankruptcy clearance sale,” with nearly all items in stores and online discounted by 30 to 50 percent.

Conn’s said it may need to close “some, all or a significant number of its stores” to obtain liquidity and maximize the value of its bankruptcy estate, according to the July 23 filing.

Conn’s has closed 71 stores bearing his name, leaving just over 100 locations open.

To liquidate inventory, furniture at Badcock stores is marked down by up to 50 percent. Bedding and electronics are marked down by up to 40 percent, while appliances are marked down by 30 percent.

Now that Badcock is out of business, Conn’s has closed 451 of its 553 stores, meaning more than four out of five locations will soon be gone.

Conn’s and Badcock stores employ approximately 3,800 full-time and 150 part-time employees.

Conn’s, headquartered in The Woodlands, Texas, has been in business in one form or another for 134 years.

At first it was a plumbing and heating company, but in 1933 the store was taken over by Carroll Wayne Conn Sr., giving Conn’s its current name.

The store started out in 1937 selling refrigerators, but today it sells everything from household appliances to televisions, furniture and much more.

Conn’s has been struggling for years with the growing physical presence of stores.

That led to it buying Badcock in December 2023 in a last-ditch effort to boost revenue and keep the business afloat.

It did not work.

In a April DisclosureConn’s reported it ended 2023 with an annualized net loss of nearly $77 million.

Conn’s stock has been in freefall for more than three years, down an astonishing 98 percent since June 2021. After the bankruptcy, the stock plummeted even further, now trading at around $0.34 per share.

To liquidate inventory, furniture in Badcock stores, pictured, is marked down by up to 50 percent. Bedding and electronics are marked down by up to 40 percent, while appliances are marked down by 30 percent.

Conn’s appears to be struggling to cope with its growing brick-and-mortar presence, culminating in its acquisition of Badcock in December 2023, saddling the company with debt and high overhead costs, Bloomberg reported.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Conn’s for comment on the latest series of closures and the ongoing bankruptcy, but has not yet received a response.

The latest troubles facing Conn’s and its subsidiary Badcock come amid a widespread “retail apocalypse,” with brick-and-mortar stores struggling with rising theft and ever-tightening margins.

In late April, US retailers announced they would close nearly 2,600 stores by 2024.

Walmart, the largest retailer in the US, has closed 11 stores so far this year.

Earlier in April, dollar store 99 Cents Only said it would close all 371 of its stores, while Best Buy closed 10. in March.

Money tree close 1,000, Macy’s 150 – a third of the total – and drugstore Ritual aid 77.

There has been a series of bankruptcies and store closures in recent months.

Express, a well-known mall-based retailer, filed for bankruptcy in April and said it would close 95 Express locations, in addition to all of its UpWest stores.

In early May, Rue21, the teen fashion chain that is a fixture in malls across America, also announced that it will close all of its 543 stores in the US.