Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Festivity Boutique May Reopen For "Storewide Sale"

Boutique may reopen for closing sale. 

Festivity, a once popular women's boutique with a half dozen locations around the southeast, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month and closed its stores.  (Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a "straight liquidation" or in other words, liquidation with no hope of reorganization. Chapter 11, a more common bankruptcy filing, is in an effort to reorganize and reopen.)

A reader named Rebecca identified herself as a manager at Festivity's Homewood (Alabama) location and supported the assertion that the store's closure was rather sudden.  "I was the store manager at the homewood location and found out via email on Tuesday night [January 19th] that all stores were closing. So to all of you who have gift cards, etc I do apologize, but keep in mind that as employees, we are now out of jobs with no hope of pay for time rendered since this process began. We loved our wonderful customers and are grieving over this loss. Thanks for your years of patronage at the Homewood store. All of you will be missed. Love Homewood best place to work!"

While all stores closed after the filing, this week brought some new developments to their former Peachtree Battle and Chastain Park locations.  
Earlier this morning, a moving crew was observed clearing out and packing up the entire Peachtree Battle store.  The Chastain Park store, located in Powers Ferry Square, which like the Peachtree Battle location had sat idle yet fully stocked since the bankruptcy filing, now displays "STOREWIDE SALE" signage.  The new signage (and removal of the "now hiring" sign) reportedly occurred yesterday but the store has yet to reopen.  The signage seems to suggest that the store will reopen to conclude business and liquidate the merchandise and related assets of the the store.  (It's unclear whether other stores' merchandise may be brought to this location for liquidation.)  
The Festivity facebook page has been deleted and its website is down.  A phone number at the Chastain Park store is still in service but no one answers and the message provides no information as to when the sale may start.   

Calls to Leslie Mintz, who leases Powers Ferry Square on behalf of Regency Centers, seeking comment on Festivity's status at the center were not immediately returned.   

Unlike last year's sudden closure of all ten Here to Serve restaurants, Festivity's would-be "storewide sale" could provide customers the opportunity to cash in otherwise useless gift cards. 

Were you a fan of Festivity?  Were you surprised by their closure?  Are you currently holding one or more Festivity gift cards?

Please share your thoughts below.  

***Update*** The Festivity store in Powers Ferry Square is open today (2/18) until 6pm. The entire store is on sale with discounts of 30-75% off the marked price.  The store is accepting credit cards only.  Other closed Festivity stores reportedly sent their merchandise to a warehouse where this location will be pulling from.  The sale will go on "for weeks."  

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was getting my hair done at the Glowdry next door last week. The closing sale sign was posted but the storee was closed at 4:30 on a Friday.

ImAndy said...

If a retailer files chapter 7 the only way you can get giftcard money back is by joining the bankruptcy as a creditor. The accruals for giftcards have already been frozen by the bankruptcy court. Even if you go through all that hassle you'll never see any of the money because all the secured creditors come first in getting any money that's recovered from assets.

Additionally the inventory has probably been sold to a liquidation company so anything you buy in the liquidation sale is going to them not to Festivity.

In other words...you're screwed...that money is gone

Atlantan99 said...

They have a sheet to put your name and email regarding gift cards. Someone will contact you. They only take credit cards. Said they will be there for about a month.

ImAndy said...

If you believe someone will contact you I have an old Montgomery Wards giftcard I'll sell you :-)

Chris Nilan said...

Dozens of suppliers weren't paid by Colleen and Chris Nilan. They were both shysters. Store managers and employees knew of the shenanigans. Keep in mind when you buy at the clearance that many suppliers will never get paid from these frauds.

Anonymous said...

Like I tried to post before but I guess is wasn't approved.
I sold Chris and Colleen a 20K rug for their living room.

Wonder if they still have it?

Anonymous said...

Heard for years they had money problems. Odd they had kids in private school knowing all of it was a fraud. How do these folks sleep at night?

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