USA Today is running a particularly harsh headline today in the Money section: Pier 1 falls off shoppers’ radar.
Once a must-shop store for tchotchkes, wicker and affordable Asian furniture, Pier 1 has wound up one of the weakest of home furnishing stores, battered by the bad real estate market.
The retailer said Thursday that its same-store sales were down 11% for the quarter, closing out what new CEO Alex Smith called a “truly horrible” fiscal year.
Smith blamed, among other things, the “dramatic and untested changes” to its merchandise — most notably to make it more contemporary — and excessive spending on advertising. The company has been “bleeding … from self-inflicted wounds,” he said.
