Pier 1 will close up to 450 stores

[Sherman A1]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/06/business/pier-1-imports-bankruptcy/index.html?

New York (CNN Business)Pier 1 Imports will close nearly half of its stores and is reportedly nearing a bankruptcy filing.

The home goods retailer has been struggling for years against rising pressure online and from big-box rivals. Its stock, which was at $300 a share in 2015, is trading at around $5 today.
Pier 1 (PIR) shares tumbled nearly 17% Monday. after Bloomberg reported the news of a potential bankruptcy.
Pier 1 operated 942 stores in the United States and Canada at the end of its latest quarter. It said Monday that it will close up to 450 stores "in order to better align its business with the current operating environment." Pier 1 will also close distribution centers and lay off corporate employees.

[BillyBobBrilliant]

1. Once upon a time

When I was a young Hippie (50 years ago) Pier 1 was the cool place to shop for incense, Batik material, stash boxes, cookware, nick-nacks and exotic foods. Then they decided to go to a high priced furniture, and housewares market. The last time I visited them was over a decade ago, and couldn't find anything i liked that I could justify the cost of buying.
Cost Plus World Market now fills the niche that was once filled by Pier 1 in my shopping world.

[Farmer-Rick]

2. So Macy and Pier 1 are closing hundreds of stores but not to worry

As a nation of sales clerk, the US needs all the corporate retail we can get. How can we increase jobs with corporate retail closing left and right? Why, we all need to move into the 2nd most numerous job held by Americans.

I guess we are all going to have to get hired...so repeat after me, "Do you want fries with that?"

[Sherman A1]

3. The sand has been shifting under the Retail Sector for a very long time

staring back in the 1980s with the overbuilding of retail space, the leveraged buyouts, automaton, streamlining operations, the advance of computerization in the back offices, distribution and then the sales floor, not to mention changes in technology making some products obsolete and an aging Baby Boom Generation that don't need as much stuff.

AI will replace many of the remaining jobs in the sector within the next 5-10 years by my guess and as much as "Do you want fries with that?" sounds like the next path in the downward spiral, those jobs will be gone as well replaced by AI and automation.