Online Shopping and Tariffs – What Went Wrong for Art Van Furniture
We now have a glimpse of what went wrong for the once-proud, family-run business.
Yesterday, Art Van Furniture officially filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and the filing has gone public, which is finally shedding some light on what happened.
The filing was made in Delaware. It's 22-pages long and was written by Art Van's executive vice president and CFO David Ladd, who came to the company after working for hedgefund-owned and also bankrupt Kmart and Sears.
The filing cites reasons such as decreased foot traffic, more online shopping, and $8 million in tariffs in 2019 as some of the reasons that the company went under - the stores were "unable to meet their financial obligations."