Bon-Ton bankrupcy sale
Bankrupt Bon-Ton Stores’ liquidation sale is likely to last through August.
Roughly 40 percent of the inventory of bankrupt Bon-Ton Stores Inc. has been sold so far, and the retailer’s liquidation sale is likely to last through August at some stores, an executive for the liquidator said.
“The warehouses are almost empty and only a very little bit of merchandise will still hit the stores,” said Scott Carpenter, president of retail solutions for Woodland Hills, Calif.-based Great American, the firm conducting the going-out-of-business sale.
Bon-Ton, the parent company of Boston Store, Younkers and other department store brands, was sold to a group of liquidators and debt holders in a bankruptcy auction in April.
At the time, Bon-Ton management said it expected the going-out-of-business sales for its 212 stores, including furniture galleries, to last 10 to 12 weeks. The bankruptcy court, however, gave the liquidators until Aug. 31 to sell BonTon’s assets.
It now appears, about 10 weeks into the sale, that the wind-down will continue until that deadline in some locations.
Twenty of the stores are in Wisconsin, including Boston Stores at Bayshore, Brookfield Square, Grand Avenue, Mayfair and Southridge malls in metro Milwaukee.
“Currently we are on pace to complete the sale in all stores by August 31st,” Carpenter said. “Some stores will sell out sooner, but it all depends on the sales volume.”
Liquidation discounts started in the 10-percent to 30-percent range, but now are up to 50 percent to 70 percent off regular prices for most items.
Bon-Ton’s department stores were known for offering coupons that regularly provided discounts, often 25 percent or more. Asked whether the discounting nature of Bon-Ton made for a slow start to the sale until markdowns reached levels not typically seen there, Carpenter said his firm’s models are based on selling a certain amount of merchandise at each discount level.
“So far, our models are holding true, and we expect a large volume of sales with the current increase in discounts,” he said.
Liquidators are moving some of the merchandise to stores where it is selling more quickly, Carpenter said.
“Stores vary by sales volume. We are shifting inventory from the slower-selling stores to the faster-selling stores since we only have a finite amount of inventory,” he said.
The Grand Avenue Boston Store in downtown Milwaukee, where one of two corporate headquarters for BonTon was based, also is selling company office furniture and supplies, in addition to regular retail products.