TWO ELDER-BEERMANS SHUT; ALL WILL CLOSE WEDNESDAY
Kettering, Piqua stores shuttered; 3 remaining sites to follow suit Wed.
The Elder-Beerman stores in Kettering and Piqua have closed, and all other Dayton-area stores will follow on Wednesday.
The stores at the Mall at Fairfield Commons, Dayton Mall and Huber Heights will continue to offer 70to 90-percent-off sales through at least 5 p.m. Wednesday, according to employees of the stores. Customers will see an additional 40 percent drop off the total cost except for fine jewelry, which will see an additional 25 percent discount.
Elder-Beerman’s parent company Bon-Ton filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February and started liquidation sales in April. Bon-Ton, which operates other brands such as Bon-Ton, Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Herberger’s and Younkers, bought Elder-Beerman for $92.8 million in 2003.
Dayton-based Elder-Beerman has roots in the area back to 1883 when an advertisement for the Boston Dry Goods Store owned by Thomas Elder ran in the Dayton Daily Journal.
The company follows the same fate of other big boxes like Toys R Us, which shuttered its doors at the end of June after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Many retailers couldn’t keep up as online sales grew and consumer shopping habits shifted.
Several retailers have announced store closures already in 2018, including Sears, Kmart, Macy’s and Sam’s Club. Last week, Sears announced it would close its Dayton Mall store, leaving 129,000 square feet of space vacant.