Bob's Stores closing all 21 stores, including 2 on Long Island, after 70 years in business

Discount clothing and shoe retailer Bob’s Stores will close its remaining 21 stores, including the two on Long Island, after 70 years in business and another bankruptcy filing.

The Meriden, Connecticut-based retailer, which has Long Island stores in Centereach and West Islip, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June. It began going-out-of-business sales Friday at its stores, which are in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.

“Bob’s has been a stalwart of our local communities for nearly 70 years, and we know our customers remember us as having been there for major moments in their lives,” Dave Barton, president of Bob's Stores, said in a statement Monday.

A sister company to Bob’s Stores, outdoor apparel and equipment retailer Eastern Mountain Sports, also is having going-out-of-business sales at six stores in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey, but 15 others will remain open.

The Bob’s Stores in West Islip, at 135-187 Sunrise Hwy., opened in 1995, said Thomas Rettaliata, vice chairman at Ripco Real Estate LLC, the Woodbury firm marketing the property. The store occupies 31,000 square feet on the main floor and 20,000 square feet in the basement, he said.

The store in Centereach Square, at 191 Centereach Mall, occupies 14,500 square feet and opened about six months ago in a former Joann’s fabric and craft store space after relocating from Selden, said Daniel Glazer, executive vice president at Ripco.

GoDigital Media Group LLC, a Los Angeles-based media and technology holding company, acquired Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports from U.K.-based Frasers Group PLC in 2022. GoDigital Media Group did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

‘Ensuing liquidity crisis’

Bob’s Stores, Eastern Mountain Sports and three other affiliated companies filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on June 18.

The bankruptcy judge approved joint administration for all five cases on June 21, but it will not be a “substantive consolidation,” which means the affiliates’ assets and liabilities will not be treated as if they belong to a single entity, said Maria Aprile Sawczuk, a partner at Delaware law firm Goldstein & McClintock LLLP who is representing Bob’s Stores and its affiliates in the bankruptcy case.

Bob's Stores and the affiliated companies employ a total of about 771 full- and part-time workers and generated $131.9 million in net revenue in 2023, according to a bankruptcy court document.

The companies owe their primary lender, PNC Bank, about $29.4 million under loans, but the debtors were current on payments as of the date of the bankruptcy filings, the document said.

On March 29, PNC declared that there had been a loan default and, on June 12, stopped all funding, the document said.

“The debtors determined, in their business judgment, that Chapter 11 filings were necessary and appropriate, in light of the ensuing liquidity crisis, in order to continue to operate the debtors’ business while attempting to develop a plan of reorganization,” according to the filing.

Bob’s Stores and its affiliates also owe about $26.7 million in unsecured debt that is mostly owed to landlords for back rent, trade creditors and outstanding operating debts, according to a bankruptcy document.

Bob's Stores has estimated assets of as much as $50,000 and liabilities ranging from $10,000,001 to $50 million, the document said.

Bob’s Stores has been shrinking for years and has filed for bankruptcy several times.

A Bob’s Stores location in Patchogue closed in January 2020, and one in East Northport closed several years ago. An Eastern Mountain Sports store in a Carle Place shopping center closed around spring 2016, said Jeffrey Pliskin, president of Pliskin Realty and Development, the Garden City-based owner of the shopping center.

Bob’s Surplus was founded in 1954 in Middletown, Connecticut, by Robert Lapidus, who changed the name to Bob’s Stores in 1985. In 1990, when the chain had six stores, Lapidus sold it to Melville Corp., which owned CVS and Marshalls Inc.

In 2003, The TJX Cos., owner of TJ Maxx and Marshalls, bought Bob’s Stores out of bankruptcy, acquiring 31 of the chain’s 36 stores and other assets, for $59 million.

In 2008, TJX sold Bob’s Stores to two private equity firms.

Eastern Outfitters LLC, the former parent company of the Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports chains, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017, when there were 86 Eastern Outfitters and Bob’s Stores with 2,600 employees in the Northeast.

In April 2017, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court approved Sports Direct International PLC, now known as Frasers Group PLC, acquiring some of Eastern Outfitters’ assets, including 30 Bob’s Stores and 19 Eastern Mountain Sports, for $101 million.

By Tory N. Parrish

tory.parrish@newsday.com@ToryParrish1

Tory N. Parrish covers retail and small business for Newsday. She has worked at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y.