Bankrupt - Pier 1 Imports

They seemed confused about who they wanted their target customer base to be. They opened many of their stores in middle class shopping centers, which cheapened their brand in the eyes of affluent shoppers, but they kept the upscale prices, so middle class shoppers percieved them as being way too overpriced. Who's going to pay $45 for a throw pillow at Pier 1 when they can go to the Marshall's next door and get one just like it for $12? They should have either lowered their prices to be more competitive in the middle class market, or if they wanted to remain upscale, only opened their stores in high income areas. You don't see Restoration Hardware opening a store in a shopping center sandwiched between a Ross and a 5 Below

COVID is going to keep this series busy for a minute.

I know this will get buried in the comments...however my aunt worked for Pier 1 for 31 years, and did all she could to help corporate keep up with the trends she knew the customers wanted. She saw this coming though.She died unexpectedly in May, and they announced closing exactly a week later. Will miss her, and the Pier 1 gift the family got every year.

"By 2020 they changed their marketing to target young home buyers" That was a mistake. Last I checked not many young adults have the opportunity to even comfortably afford their apartment.

They really fell off the pier

It's almost like their CEO went into IKEA and couldn't find the exit

The problem with Pier-One: They forgot who their core demographic was and started pricing their items too high for that demographic, and this was being done on stuff you could buy at Walmart for cheaper. Their original core demographic was young just married couples and first-time homeowners. In short, two groups with not a lot of money to throw around who are more than likely in the market for new furniture and home decorations. Now, when you sell a papasan chair at a markup that makes the same chair cost twice as much as what you could pay for the same chair at Walmart, you're going to lose customers to Walmart. This papasan chair example could be applied to anything else Pier-One tried to sell.

I find it crazy how most of this series includes so many stores I’ve just driven past over the years. never going in, but recognizing the names as I pass. I don’t have any connection to them but it still makes me sad to see some of em go

Worked there for 6 months near the end, the clutter was because they were constantly getting obscene amounts of seasonal items. You'd basically have to rearrange the whole store every few weeks. The company would also accept a lot of cheap 3rd party stuff that just never got sold. The prices for the furniture there was just... yikes. Honestly, they should've just shifted their goods to only their fragrances, those were the only things worth buying from them.

There's a strip mall in my hometown that had a Circuit City, Toys-R-Us and a Pier 1 in it. The Circuit City got replaced by Marshall's and the Toys-R-Us got replaced by Ashley Furniture. After Toys-R-Us closed, I went "What's next, Pier 1?". That strip mall is haunted or something.

I remember Pier 1 Imports from the 70's and early 80's. Whenever we went to the mall, I'd pop in just to enjoy their unique ambience and smell of incense. I loved pretending I was on some exotic island. So many of the shops I grew up with are now gone. 😥

Thirty years ago, Pier 1 was the cool place to shop. It's sad that they dumbed themselves down to the point that they were basically the Wal Mart of the home goods market.

Their overstock and cluttering issues kept some of my friends away from Pier 1 stores because of accessibility issues. No room for wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, or canes in those aisles.

The first and only time anyone has shown interest in a topic involving Pier One Imports.

Pier 1 will have a special place in my memory for what it used to be. I remember back in the 90s when I was a teenager. Me and my sister used to go to the nearest Pier 1 and pick out stuff for our imaginary apartment. It will always remind me of that time in my life.

A scene from "Friends" sums up the company: "Forget it, its from Pier 1"

BSF: They filed- Me: Already?? What?! BSF: For an initial public offering on the American stock exchange. Oh that makes sense

Nice video! Next Bankrupt episode should be about Chuck E. Cheese's filing for Chapter 11 back in June.

Nearly all the stores I remember as a kid are or have gone out of business, Circuit City, Sears, Ames, JC Penney, CompUSA, etc now Pier 1?

I never really cared for Pier 1 Imports. I never found anything I couldn't go without. Nothing ever caught my eye enough to spend $20+