Art Van Furniture going out of business, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse

Pier 1 Imports filing for bankruptcy was last month's story about a home furnishings chain being hit by the Retail Apocalypse.  This month, it's regional furniture chain Art Van, which announced yesterday that it is going out of business.  WXYZ had the overall story in Art Van Furniture closing all stores, liquidation sales start Friday.

Art Van Furniture is closing all of its locations and beginning liquidation sales.

I'd forgotten about Art Van's role in supporting Detroit's Thanksgiving Day Parade, even though I wrote about it five years ago.  That wasn't the only Thanksgiving parade in Michigan Art Van sponsored.  Art Van also supported Grand Rapids' Thanksgiving parade, which WOOD-TV included in Art Van Furniture going out of business.

Art Van Furniture, the Michigan-based chain known for rambunctious advertisements promising low prices, is going out of business.

Both of those reports focused on the effect of Art Van closing on the community.  WDIV focused on the employees in Art Van closures to leave thousands of employees without work.

An announcement that Art Van is closing all of its stores will affect thousands of employees nationwide.

WDIV promised an explanation of how Art Van go into this situation.  Here it is: Art Van Furniture to close all stores: How did we get here?

Warren-based furniture chain Art Van Furniture is planning to close all stores in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio.

The purchase of Art Van by a private equity firm makes this look a like the death of Toys R Us and KB Toys and the near death of Sears and Kmart.  Private equity firms deserve as much or more of the blame than Amazon and other online retailers for the decline of brick and mortar retail.  In my opinion, they're not getting it.

Enough of the Retail Apocalypse for now.  Stay tuned for an entry about Elizabeth Warren dropping out.