GOB sales started Thursday at five stores

Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, June 11, 2009

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. — Plunkett Home Furnishings, a midpriced to high-end former Top 100 company, is closing its five remaining stores in greater Chicago and St. Louis, apparently falling victim to the weak business climate and declining real estate market.

Plunkett, in business for 78 years, hired Great American Furniture Services to conduct its going-out-of-business sales at the showrooms in Ballwin, Mo., and Hoffman Estates, Lombard, Northbrook and Vernon Hills, Ill.

The retailer operates under separate companies in the St. Louis and Chicago markets, but all stores will close.

The sales began Thursday and will run "for a couple of months or until all the inventory is sold," said Great American Furniture Services President Jeff Yellen. He would not disclose projected sales from the GOB.

Yellen said Plunkett ran in liquidity problems because of declining real estate values and weak business conditions. Last year, the company closed its Orland Park and River Forest, Ill., showrooms.

Fred Caruso of consulting firm and financial advisor Development Specialists in Chicago has been named the assignee for the benefit of creditors and will be assisting in the wind-down, Yellen said. Assignment for the benefit of creditors is an insolvency proceeding under state law that is a less expensive alternative to bankruptcy, said John Wheeler, a representative in Caruso's office.

Key suppliers to Plunkett include Universal, Bernhardt, Rowe and Klaussner.