Levitz Furniture

Levitz Furniture was a nationwide chain of American furniture stores that helped create the "furniture warehouse" genre of retail furniture sales. It was in business for nearly 100 years before liquidating in bankruptcy in early 2008.

History

Growth

The company was founded in Lebanon, Pennsylvania in 1910 by Richard Levitz.cite news|publisher=Modesto Bee|accessdate=2008-01-04|title=Levitz Furniture closing all 76 stores, including one in Modesto|author=By Ben van der Meer|date=December 7, 2007|url=http://www.modbee.com/business/story/145195.html]

In the 1960s Levitz successfully pioneered selling moderately-priced brand name furniture from a warehouse-style store. It suffered in the 1990s as consumers began to prefer showroom sales that featured spaces arranged to look like actual rooms in houses.

Marketing

The store is known for one of the most catchy slogans and jingles in the retail industry, "You'll love it at Levitz."cite news|title=Levitz closing remaining stores in Arizona|author=Donna Hogan|accessdate=2008-01-04|publisher=East Valley Tribune]

Demise

The company is accused of having being poorly run for more than a decade. It declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy twice during the period, in 1997 and again in 2005, both times emerging after a corporate restructuring and the participation of new outside backers. The furniture market underwent a prolonged nationwide downturn after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and was hurt again in late 2007 by the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. [cite news|accessdate=2008-01-04|title=Tough times in furniture: Levitz one of '07's high-profile closings|author=Betty Beard|publisher=the Arizona Republic|url=http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/1214biz-levitz1214.html|date=December 14, 2007] Levitz filed for bankruptcy a final time in October, 2007. As of that time it was operating nearly 80 stores, mostly in the Northeastern United States and on the West Coast, under the corporation PLVTZ LLC.

The company was sold in bankruptcy to a group of bidders lead by Hilco Merchant Resources,cite news|publisher=Sacramento Bee|url=http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/552145.html|accessdate=2008-01-04|title=Levitz closing all local, U.S. stores|author=Clint Swett|date=December 8, 2007] that began to rapidly liquidate its inventory and close all remaining stores.cite news|date=December 7, 2007|title=Levitz bankruptcy erects hurdles for customers|author=Dan Richman|publisher=Seattle Post-Intelligencer|url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/342726_levitz08.html?source=mypi|accessdate=2008-01-04]

ee also

*The Room Store
*Breuner Home Furnishings

References

External links

* [http://www.levitz.com Levitz.com] - official website