Family-run discount retailer Daffy’s Inc. will liquidate its 19 stores,
the
Wall Street Journal
reported.
The company’s 1,300 employees will receive pay and benefits for at least 60 days, the article said.
Citing a report in
Women’s Wear Daily,
the
Journal
said the company told vendors in June that it wasn’t able to pay its May invoices.
Daffy’s stores were based in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. The
Journal
article noted that in November, it had opened a store in Times Square, where rents run about $1,400 per square foot.
In a statement, the company cited the uncertain economy, weak consumer spending and “a lack of viable financial and business alternatives,” according to
a report
on the website NorthJersey.com.
Daffy’s was founded in 1961, when Irving Shulman opened an Elizabeth, N.J., store called Daffy Dan’s Bargain Town. Shulman died in March 2011 at age 96; his daughter Marcia Wilson was the company’s chairwoman.
A report in
Crain’s New York Business
said Wilson had been searching for a financial partner for two years. That article noted that in a 2010 interview, Wilson had said she planned to add more than a dozen more stores in the New York metro area by 2015. (Sources:
Wall Street Journal,
July 17, 2012; NorthJersey.com, July 16, 2012;
Crain’s New York Business,
July 16, 2012.)
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