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. 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. The chain continued to expand in 2005, when they acquired Seaman's Furniture and Huffman Koos stores after bankruptcy.
On a related note
Six years after the founder's retirement and no longer associated with the Levitz Furniture company, the founder reentered the furniture market purchasing the store chain RB Furniture eventually renamed The RoomStore, eventually selling them to Heilig-Meyers. He along with other family members, later bought into Ashley Furniture HomeStores, eventually owning 9 locations.
Levitz was accused of having been poorly run for more than a decade starting in the 1990s. 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. On December 21, 1998, Levitz announced it would close 27 stores and lay off 25% of its workforce. The company downsized its warehouse system from 65 to 17 sites. The furniture market underwent a prolonged nationwide downturn after the September 11 attacks, and was hurt again in late 2007 by the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. Levitz filed for bankruptcy the 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. In October 2008, Levitz Furniture, with bankruptcy court approval, converted its Chapter 11 case to Chapter 7, and started liquidation sales. The company was sold in bankruptcy to a group of bidders, led by Hilco Merchant Resources, that acted to rapidly liquidate its inventory and close all remaining stores.
