Century 21 Declares Bankruptcy and Closing All 13 Stores

End of an era: NYC-based department store chain Century 21 has filed for bankruptcy and is shutting down all its stores, putting nearly 1,400 employees out of work, and many thousands of bargain-hunters out of luck.

Going Out of Business sales start soon, and the stores will close by the end of October.

The announcement comes just days after Lord & Taylor, founded in NYC more than 100 years ago, made a similar going out of business announcement.

Century 21 has 13 stores, mostly in New York City, and also in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The company blamed the lack of payment of $175 Million on its business interruption insurance as the cause of its demise.

The announcement on Sept. 10 has special poignancy, since the original store, on Dey Street in the Financial District, was severely damaged in the 9/11 attacks, and what was a shopping secret of “in the know” New Yorkers became nationally prominent when racks of debris-covered clothing and shoes were shown on national TV newscasts.

JCPenney and Neiman-Marcus are other retailers which have declared bankruptcy recently, but intend to stay in business

Both large and small department store chains were struggling even before the Covid-19 Pandemic caused temporary shutdowns, and we shifted to buying more things online.

But department stores also depend on clothing sales, and millions of people out of work and millions of others working from home, new clothing has not been a priority for many of us.

How many other NYC department stores and specialty stores can you name which have gone out of business? 

I can name these – read more about them here

Gimbel’s

B. Altman

Best & Company

Orbach’s

Franklin Simon

Bonwit Teller

Sym’s

Loehmann’s

Daffy’s

Alexander’s

Abraham & Straus

EJ Korvette’s

Henri Bendel

• photo of Century 21 Bay Ridge, Brooklyn store courtesy Century 21