Mervyns RIP

[emptym]

I knew they'd filed for bankruptcy, but today I found out they're going out of business completely, at least acc. to their sales associates.

Have probably only gone there 3-4 times in the past 20 years, but we sometimes got our school clothes there when I was a kid, so it was sad to walk around the store seeing all the for sale signs.

I reminisced about Le Tigre, Cheetah, OP, and other brands we used to get there. Sigh.

 

[acidboy]

One of many in the days to come, I believe.

 

[Scrumhalf]

That's too bad. They were actually pretty good for certain things like school clothes for the kids, etc. Definitely several notches above Target in terms of quality while not costing all that much more.

 

[SJTrance]

I swear, when I went there during my high school days (I'm 32 now), they had a consistent sign saying that that store was going out of business. I mean, as a kid, I just associated Mervyns to "going out of business." I still have a feeling that they're faking the bankruptcy as a farce for one last sale...lol. Nah, but I suppose they're finally kicking the bucket.

 

[DarkPinstripeSuits&OTCs]

No doubt a McMacy's will be replacing it. It's sad to think that when I was very young, there were different department stores everywhere, especially in the NY/NJ area.

 

[emptym]

Originally Posted by SJTrance

I swear, when I went there during my high school days (I'm 32 now), they had a consistent sign saying that that store was going out of business. I mean, as a kid, I just associated Mervyns to "going out of business." I still have a feeling that they're faking the bankruptcy as a farce for one last sale...lol. Nah, but I suppose they're finally kicking the bucket.
It'd be great if it wasn't true. The employees were very sad. They said Mervyns is no longer even in charge of the sale.

 

[robin]

A lot of companies are going to under soon, many can't even get credit for holiday merchandise.

 

[pitboss12]

At the end of summer, retail news was reporting that vendors didn't want to ship back to school stock to Mervyns becuase of credit problems. But they are definately going under. It was one of the top news stories here in Socal about 3 weeks ago.

I guess at one time they sold quality stuff. Occasionally at thrift shops I'll see great wool ties woven in Scotland with Mervyn's tags on it. However, since I was young, Mervyns wasn't really where you went for quality stuff. It was just the place to buy Levi's.

 

[sho'nuff]

even with the clearance sales/going out of business sales, i went into one expecting some great deals on towels, underwear, etc,

but came out very disappointed.

everything even with their markdowns are still priced not low enough where i wasnt even interested.

but i see tons of people lug around a ton of crap in their shopping carts.


i dont know if they even know if you shop around online and at decent dept stores you can get quality and better brand names at much lower prices at certain times, just got to know where to look and have good timing.

 

[JLibourel]

I can't recall ever having set foot in a Mervyns although I was aware of the chain. To what other chains would it be most closely comparable to in quality and types of merchandise?

 

[Manton]

I spent a lot of time in Mervyn's as a kid. Maybe it's a NorCal thing.

Quality is low. Then again, at that time, we thought Macy's was top of the line.

 

[Nataku]

Originally Posted by JLibourel

To what other chains would it be most closely comparable to in quality and types of merchandise?

Kohl's, JC. Pennys.....etc. Basically retailers that source the garbage we have to weed through at thrift stores. I haven't been into one in aeons. The last one up were was called Mervyn's California, then they dropped "California". Then they disappeared from local malls around here in about 1997.

 

[Dan G]

These guys are indeed liquidating. I believe you can blame the fact that they were a highly leveraged ************* company as the reason they went under. Sure a weakening consumer probably broke them, but the structure of their company had virtually no flexibility to begin with.

I think this was a Sun Capital (private equity shop specializing in smaller retailers, etc) portfolio company. They sold all of the real estate when they did the deal and added the additional expense of leases.

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by JLibourel

I can't recall ever having set foot in a Mervyns although I was aware of the chain. To what other chains would it be most closely comparable to in quality and types of merchandise?

It's Cruiser's emporium of choice.

 

[gamblor]

Originally Posted by Manton

I spent a lot of time in Mervyn's as a kid. Maybe it's a NorCal thing.

Quality is low. Then again, at that time, we thought Macy's was top of the line.

This was my exact experience as a kid but perhaps 20 years later. Mervyns meant Bugle Boy and Russel Athletic when all the cool kids went to Macys for Silvertab and Mossimo, sigh.