Century 21 to Close All Stores After Filing for Bankruptcy

Another casualty to COVID-19, the New York department store chain Century 21 has filed for bankruptcy on Thursday. All of its store locations will be closed.

According to CNN, due to the department store not filing its interruption insurance was one of the root causes of it falling apart now. The $175 million that was meant to be funneled into the company through the insurance for the revenue it lost when the pandemic forced store closures never came. Without that money to fund the 13 stores across the tri-state area and Florida, and the 1,400 people it employees, the company decided to file for bankruptcy.

"While insurance money helped us to rebuild after suffering the devastating impact of 9/11, we now have no viable alternative but to begin the closure of our beloved family business because our insurers, to whom we have paid significant premiums every year for protection against unforeseen circumstances like we are experiencing today, have turned their backs on us at this most critical time," Century 21 co-CEO Raymond Gindi said in a statement, emphasizing that if they got the insurance providers support, the discount retailer wouldn't be in this position.

"While retailers across the board have suffered greatly due to Covid-19 ... we are confident that had we received any meaningful portion of the insurance proceeds, we would have been able to save thousands of jobs and weather the storm."

Century 21 is not the only large, legacy department store that was forced to file for bankruptcy and fear permanent closure due to COVID-19. Back in the middle of May, J.C. Penney also had to file for bankruptcy because it could not afford to stay open after having a challenging fiscal year before the pandemic even hit. Other retailers such as Neiman Marcus and Lord and Taylor have also been forced to file for bankruptcy.