Goodness Gracious! New life for retailer
Bankrupt Manhattan retailer Gracious Home has a new strategy and a $3 million loan. The firm will lead with e-tail and devote its physical store solely to luxury goods — no more cleaning supplies. Gracious Home isn’t going away, after all. The luxury home retailer, which closed three of its four stores in Manhattan late last year and is still stuck in Chapter 11, is mounting a Web-based comeback that will be anchored by its single location on the Upper East Side, The Post has learned.
“The business needed to be reinvented, which is what we’ve done,” Chief Executive Robert Morrison told The Post in a Thursday interview.
The 54-year-old chain, which had sold everything from silk pillows and chandeliers to furniture polish and Lysol, is now focusing on bed and bath linens, and lighting.
Its Web site — dormant since October — relaunched over the weekend, and its store at 1210 Third Ave. is almost fully stocked.
On Jan. 31, while Gracious Home was liquidating everything in its last store, it was approved for a $3 million loan from JMB Capital Partners that has allowed it to acquire new inventory and buy it more time until it lines up investors to buy it out of bankruptcy.
“We are in talks and hope to get a commitment by June,” said Morrison, who joined the company in 2014.
Despite its own financial woes, Gracious Home is not retreating from expensive merchandise.
“You are not going to get a set of sheets from us for under $500,” Morrison said. “We are selling luxury.”
A flat sheet alone could set shoppers back as much as $400 for such brands as Sferra, Frette and Yves Delorme. Throw blankets go for as much as $780.
What you won’t find at Gracious Home anymore are cleaning products, silver polish, Ziploc bags, appliances and plumbing devices — all items that can be bought on Amazon or elsewhere for less, Morrison said.
Gracious Home has shrunk to 5,000 square feet of retail space from 50,000, and to 60 suppliers from 1,500.
Gracious Home may even add some additional small stores to its portfolio. But assuming it can emerge from bankruptcy, Gracious Home is becoming “a Web site that is supported by stores,” Morrison said.
About 65 percent of its online customers live in cities like Chicago, San Francisco and Miami.
“I just need to tell people we are open now,” Morrison said.