Comments on: Is Linens ‘n Things Going Bankrupt? (Update: Is Bed Bath & Beyond Next?

By: benjamin

benjamin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:17:40 +0000

omg the linen n things did go out of business its scary!

By: Janet Karnes

Janet Karnes — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:25:11 +0000

I know it sounds terrible, but this isn’t all bad. I liked what Kevin Price of the Price of Business radio show wrote about it at http://www.BizPlusBlog.com. Some of this is just necessary.

By: T C

T C — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 01:22:29 +0000

I believe it had to do with management. No one seemed to really know what they were doing. I’ve been working in the company for 7 years and we’ve been through so many managers at our location. Not only was it the managers but they opened one at Vaughn Mills which was opened on holidays which I know killed our our sales at the Woodbridge Ontario location. Why put a store close to another one it makes no sense.
Some of us associates worked so hard and for what none of us ever got appreciated. Every time that we had a visit by head office all they did was picker and complain. I’ll be honest a lot of us associates were getting tired and felt run down so we gave up trying and I believe that that’s what killed us. The stores were beginning to fall apart look too crowded and messy. NO one wants to shop at an unorganized store.
I’ve even had a few guests that even complained that our prices were to high so they went else where. There is many reasons as to why LNT is in limbo now. I just feel sorry for those of us who depended on this job to help support our families.

By: ellen

ellen — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:35:59 +0000

Linens n Things has filed for bankruptcy because it’s poorly managed from the top. While they were cutting payroll on hours they ran low-salaried store managers and assistant managers ragged trying to keep up with the work load. Meanwhile, no one at the top was taking any cuts in pay. They sent the wrong message to their associates when they would make them wait hours for an executive visit (from a private jet)then pull up in a stretch limo directly blocking the front doors of the store during business hours. There were many examples of corporate waste over the past few years. Their backrooms were stuffed floor to rafter with old merchandise that had no home on the floor, often making it nearly impossible to process an incoming truck. One never got the sense that they cared much for their employees, or their customers.

By: Linda Gray

Linda Gray — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:05:17 +0000

Bed Bath & Beyond has not filed for bankruptcy, has no intentions to file, and has no need to file at this time. The difference between Linens ‘n Things and BB&B is that BB&B has zero debt, while Linens ‘n Things was operating pretty much totally on credit. So what does that mean? BB&B has the liquidity and the assets to weather a short-term downturn, while Linens does not. It’s like homeowners and the mortgage crisis–the ones who planned carefully and didn’t bite off more than they could chew in the event of a downturn are, for the most part, OK. The ones who thought the real estate gravy train would carry them through are now living under bridges.

By: Austin Chu

Austin Chu — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:47:55 +0000

Wow, at lot has happened since April. It’s now the end of May. Not only are retailers are going under, airlines are going under as well. I blogged about the falling airline industry on savvwallet.com a few weeks ago, and about 7 airlines file for BK. Imagine all the miles that are gonzo. Google Signature Days, and you’ll find a lot of people are furious. I started a review on yelp.com on signature days, people are losing 800-1000 bucks in gift cards. I agree with not getting mad at the people who work there. Update: Sharper image is accepting gift cards now, but you have to spend twice the value on it. KNBC did a piece on it a week ago. http://www.knbc.com/news/16333628/detail.html

By: Susan

Susan — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:06:39 +0000

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/bankruptcies.asp

You can usually find the truths you need at snopes.com

I used to get false forwards all the time and then i started returning emails with the snopes articles telling them the emails were false! I love this site!

By: chekhov

chekhov — Sat, 17 May 2008 20:20:56 +0000

I have recently worked at Linens N things, Bombay and am now at Circuit City (I guess I have bad luck getting jobs) so I will throw in my two cents on each
LNT looks like it may be heading down the same path that Bombay went down. The LNT i used to work at was always top 10 in the company and now they are completely dead, cutting hours, and reduced their shipment from 2-3 full trucks per week to maybe 1 partial truck per week. I spoke with my old boss recently and he doesnt seem too optimistic about the companys future. So if you have an LNT gift card USE IT NOW!
I worked at Bombay for 3 years all the way up to the end and I hated the fact that I had to tell people that their gift cards were not worth anything anymore (one customer apparently had $300 on hers!). But I urge everyone to not get angry with the associates and managers of stores that are going out of business, I was an assistant manager and I can tell you we do feel bad about the no returns and unsusable gift cards but there is nothing they can do about it, someone actually got fired for giving in and doing a couple of returns. As for circuit city i’m am not sure about them, definitely not doing well at all but i dont think they will be filling any bankruptcy papers.

By: austin chu

austin chu — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:28:34 +0000

I believe stores will open and close. It’s just those gift cards is such a huge issue in itself. I was telling hookedonhouses that each year $100B is spent on gift cards alone and in 2008 $8B was unredeemed and lost. It’s amazing how much money we pour into these cards and lose track of it. We’re essentially throwing money away. The funny thing is, the retailers don’t get to claim it as revenue, until it is spent. Gift cards is technically a loan. It’s a complicated story. Let me know if you want some links about more gift card stats. ( don’t want to break the rules of posting) Until then, SPEND YOUR CARDS NOW!!!!

By: janet

janet — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:00:46 +0000

I read the article about LNT in the LA Times last week on my California jaunt. I don’t really care for either LNT or BB&B, but sometimes you need the stuff and I thought LNT had better stuff from my limited perspective. I had sort of forgotten about Bombay until they were on their last legs and didn’t have anything left with legs, LOL. Then I bought a couple of cute tassels for no money. I would be sad if Borders went away, they are closest in proximity to me and I love the SBC Mochas. That’s my take on this conversation. I am trying to catch up on reading while posting pix from my journey.

Janet