Devine Street store among casualties as no buyer found for bankrupt chain


By JASON RYAN
Storehouse Inc. furniture’s 69 stores — including one on Devine Street in Columbia — will close by year’s end following a failed bid to sell the firm or solicit investors.

The bankrupt furniture retailer had hoped to keep operating the stores, but a U.S. District Court in eastern Virginia ordered the company this week to liquidate its assets as part of the bankruptcy proceedings.

Storehouse’s inventory is valued at $60 million. Hudson Capital Partners is managing the liquidation sale, which began Friday and was expected to end before Christmas.

Kim Britt, manager of Columbia’s Storehouse, said she and her five employees were rooting for a purchaser to leave the store open, and were dismayed when no suitor came.

Britt has worked at the store for 14 years, managing it for seven.

The Devine Street Storehouse is the Atlanta-based company’s only S.C. location, serving about 7,000 customers.

Britt said customers come from as far as Greenville and Hilton Head Island for Storehouse’s contemporary furniture.

Rugs, lights, wall decor and furniture were being discounted as much as 30 percent Friday, and Britt said she couldn’t believe her job was coming to a close.

She lamented the loss of her “wonderful” customers, some of whom she had seen grow from kids to college students. No tenant has been announced to fill the store space, Britt said.

“We anticipate the process taking two months and then (Storehouse) will be gone.”

Reach Ryan at (803) 771-8595.