Pier 1 In McHenry Slated For Closure Amid Company Bankruptcy

MCHENRY, IL — Having already closed more than 400 stores in February, Pier 1 Imports announced Tuesday that it plans to end retail operations at its remaining locations "as soon as reasonably possible"; that would include the one at North Richmond Road in McHenry, which currently listed on the Pier 1 website as temporarily closed.

In February, just 10 Illinois locations remained, but now appear poised to close as well. In addition to the McHenry spot, these locations are in Joliet, Chicago Ridge, Wheaton, Oswego, Deer Park, Orland Park, Tinley Park, Vernon Hills, and Rockford.

In a news release, the company described the decision to end its retail operations as an "orderly wind-down of business" that, at least for now, won't interfere with orders already placed on its website.

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"This decision follows months of working to identify a buyer who would continue to operate our business going forward," the news release continued. "Unfortunately, the challenging retail environment has been significantly compounded by the profound impact of COVID-19, hindering our ability to secure such a buyer and requiring us to wind down."

Over the weekend, another legacy retailer, JCPenney — which has 29 Illinois locations — filed for bankruptcy. The company announced plans to close more than 200 stores.

Both companies listed the coronavirus pandemic as the reason for the bankruptcy filing, and had been struggling and feeling the effects of the rise of online retail giants like Amazon and Wayfair. Pier 1 cut its store numbers in half last year and announced in February the closure of 450 stores.

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Pier 1 plans to continue to hold liquidation sales to sell the inventory it has left, and will also sell its website and intellectual property.

JCPenney has not released a list of the stores it plans to close but said 192 stores would close this year and another 50 stores will close next year.

"Until this pandemic struck, we had made significant progress rebuilding our company," JCPenney CEO Jill Soltau in a statement Friday night.

These JCPenney locations currently remain open in Illinois:

• ALGONQUIN(1)
• ALTON(1)
• AURORA(1)
• BOURBONNAIS(1)
• CALUMET CITY(1)
• CARBONDALE(1)
• CHAMPAIGN(1)
• CHICAGO(1)
• FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS(1)
• FREEPORT(1)
• JACKSONVILLE(1)
• JOHNSBURG(1)
• JOLIET(1)
• LOMBARD(1)
• MATTESON(1)
• MATTOON(1)
• MOKENA(1)
• MOLINE(1)
• MONTGOMERY(1)
• MT VERNON(1)
• NILES(1)
• NORTH AURORA(1)
• NORTH RIVERSIDE(1)
• ORLAND PARK(1)
• PEORIA(1)
• ROCKFORD(1)
• SCHAUMBURG(1)
• SPRINGFIELD(1)
• VERNON HILLS(1)

Samantha Mercado and Danny Wicentowski, Patch Staff, contributed to this article.