Pier 1 Imports closing Route 1 Rehoboth location
Pier 1 Imports announced May 19 that it is closing all its retail locations, including the one on Route 1 in Rehoboth Beach.
A press release from the company said it will begin an “orderly wind-down of the company’s retail operations as soon as reasonably possible after store locations are able to reopen following the government-mandated closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Pier 1 Imports, based in Fort Worth, Texas, is a home decor and accessories store founded in 1962. Beginning as a single store, it grew to have more than 950 stores throughout the United States and Canada. In January, Pier 1 announced it would be closing 450 stores. Then, in February, it announced it had filed for bankruptcy.
Located in Harbor Square, the Pier 1 in Rehoboth, 18742 Coastal Highway, opened its doors Black Friday, Nov. 23, 2001. At the time, the company had 820 locations; the Rehoboth location was the fourth in Delaware.
In a prepared statement, Robert Riesbeck, Pier 1 CEO and CFO, said the decision to shutter all the remaining the stores follows months of working to find a buyer who would continue to operate the business going forward.
“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,” said Riesbeck.
Chris Flood has been working for the Cape Gazette since early 2014. He currently covers Rehoboth Beach and Henlopen Acres, but has also covered Dewey Beach and the state government. He covers environmental stories, business stories and random stories on subjects he finds interesting, and he also writes a column called Choppin’ Wood that runs every other week. Additionally, Flood moonlights as the company’s circulation manager, which primarily means fixing boxes that are jammed with coins during daylight hours, but sometimes means delivering papers in the middle of the night. He’s a graduate of the University of Maine and the Landing School of Boat Building & Design.
