2 More Illinois Retailers Closing Stores

ILLINOIS — As many business owners across Illinois eagerly await being able to reopen when the coronavirus stay-at-home order lifts, two major retailers are planning to close their doors for good. Two months after announcing the closing of 16 of Illinois' 26 Pier 1 Imports, the retailer is looking to close all of its stores for good. JCPenney, which has 29 Illinois locations, also filed for bankruptcy over the weekend and announced plans to close more than 200 stores.

Both companies listed the coronavirus pandemic as the reason for the bankruptcy filing.

On Tuesday, Pier 1 Imports announced it requested to stop retail operations "as soon as reasonably possible."

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"Ultimately, due to the combination of a challenging retail environment and the new reality and uncertainty of a post-COVID world, the company and its advisers determined that an orderly wind-down is the best way to maximize the value of Pier 1's assets," the company said in a news release, calling it an "orderly wind-down of business operations."

Both companies had been struggling and feeling the effects of the rise of online retail giants like Amazon and Wayfair. Pier 1 cut its store numbers in half last year and announced in February the closure of 450 stores.

In February, a total of 16 Illinois Pier 1 stores were removed from the website, signaling plans for them to close. Just 10 Illinois locations remained, but now appear poised to close as well. Those locations are in Joliet, Chicago Ridge, Wheaton, Oswego, Deer Park, Orland Park, Tinley Park, Vernon Hills, McHenry and Rockford.

Pier 1 plans to continue to hold liquidation sales to sell the inventory it has left, and will also sell its website and intellectual property.

JCPenney has not released a list of the stores it plans to close but said 192 stores would close this year and another 50 stores will close next year.

"Until this pandemic struck, we had made significant progress rebuilding our company," JCPenney CEO Jill Soltau in a statement Friday night.

These JCPenney locations currently remain open in Illinois:

• ALGONQUIN(1)
• ALTON(1)
• AURORA(1)
• BOURBONNAIS(1)
• CALUMET CITY(1)
• CARBONDALE(1)
• CHAMPAIGN(1)
• CHICAGO(1)
• FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS(1)
• FREEPORT(1)
• JACKSONVILLE(1)
• JOHNSBURG(1)
• JOLIET(1)
• LOMBARD(1)
• MATTESON(1)
• MATTOON(1)
• MOKENA(1)
• MOLINE(1)
• MONTGOMERY(1)
• MT VERNON(1)
• NILES(1)
• NORTH AURORA(1)
• NORTH RIVERSIDE(1)
• ORLAND PARK(1)
• PEORIA(1)
• ROCKFORD(1)
• SCHAUMBURG(1)
• SPRINGFIELD(1)
• VERNON HILLS(1)

Samantha Mercado, Patch Staff, contributed to this article.