Steve & Barry’s: Finally Dead
I stopped paying close attention to Steve & Barry’s once the single-channel seller of cheap chic apparel and accessories closed its Trumbull (CT) store. Apparently I wasn’t the only consumer who figured they already had both Starbury’s in the grave.
Rescued from Chapter 11 by a pair of investment firms in August, Steve & Barry’s has again filed for bankruptcy. They quietly did it Nov. 21, and haven’t even announced it on its Web site. This came some nine weeks after BH S&B Holdings announced plans to begin bringing life back to the company.
Sign of the times? Or sign that Steve & Barry’s was worse off that anyone ever thought it was?
Harold Kahn came on board in mid-October to run Steve & Barry’s, and was gone just a few weeks later.
I’m down in Orlando for NCDM and popped into the Festival Bay Steve & Barry’s location. I got a t-shirt and a pair of gym shorts for less than $6. I grabbed lunch and went back for more, but there was suddenly a long line of bargain shoppers cluttering up the place. Maybe I’ll head back before I leave town on Thursday.
Why do I think they failed? Maybe I didn’t buy enough Starbury sneakers (and I think I own seven pair, including one I’ve yet to take out of the box). But truth be told, the merchant was simply out of touch with its customer base… and didn’t really know anything about its customers.
Check these articles out for my two cents on Steve & Barry’s:
Branding Mistakes that led to Steve & Barry’s Chaper 11
December 9th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
When they were bought in bankruptcy, I suspect that they figured mall owners and suppliers would continue to deal with them in the new environment, but discovered that these people had been so badly burned that they couldn’t come to terms. It says something when a CEO doesn’t last 4 weeks…
I approached them around 2001 or so to let me create their E-commerce arm, but my informal attempts to contact them were met with a resounding silence.
We discovered on Saturday after Thanksgiving that our local Ann Arbor store was running 30 - 50% off, so we went down after dinner and stocked up on tshirts for $3.99, long sleeve tshirts for $4.99, etc. Put a bunch in a bag in the back of the closet to wear when the current ones wear out. They all are Michigan shirts (Go Blue!) which will come back into acceptance sometime in the future…
December 16th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Ha! Didn’t Michigan decide not to renew its contract with Steve & Barry’s before the initial bankruptcy filing?
Plus, you can never go wrong with a Michigan t-shirt in Ann Arbor, right?
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:42 am
I loves Steve & barry’s store. I can’t understand that anyone would like to give up a good store like it. i hate wlamart and target. Target is the wrost one of them all.
I sure hope that you all will change your mind about Steve & Barry’s stores they rock .
\ julie
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:56 am
Hey steve & barry’s is the best. Hopefully they will be back soon. they rock