Christmas Tree Shops, a year-round seasonal goods retailer, will go out of business in the coming weeks unless a last-minute buyer emerges.
Store closing sales could begin as early as Friday at two Delaware stores: the Christmas Tree Shops in Brandywine Town Center off Concord Pike and the andThat! in Rehoboth Beach on Coastal Highway. andThat! is an alternate store format launched by Christmas Tree Shops in 2013 that operates under the same parent company.
The struggling retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May. At the time, they closed 10 underperforming stores as part of an attempt to rebound by August. But last week, the chain defaulted on a $45 million loan used to keep its remaining 72 stores operating, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
The exit of Christmas Tree Shops would leave another large hole in the Brandywine Town Center, which earlier this year lost Bed Bath & Beyond. Without Christmas Tree Shops, about 20% of the available retail space in the town center would be vacant. To revitalize the shopping center, its owner is planning to revamp the area around the pond along Naamans Road with new high-end stores and restaurants.
Rehoboth Beach’s andThat! was between a PetSmart and Kmart in a strip center off Coastal Highway just west of the Seaside Tanger outlets. Aldi in 2021 moved into a portion of the former Kmart. TJ Maxx is expected to fill the rest of the space. An opening date has not been set.
Christmas Tree Shops began as a boutique in Cape Cod in 1970. It remained a New England specialty until 2003 when Bed Bath & Beyond acquired the chain. Bed Bath & Beyond started expanding the Christmas Tree Shops in the rest of the Northeast in 2006. The Brandywine Town Center store opened in 2007.
Bed Bath & Beyond sold Christmas Tree Shops to Handil Holdings in 2020. Last year, Handil shifted the chain’s branding to “CTS.”
Its bankruptcy is one of several that has affected Delaware stores this year.
Months after closing its Brandywine Town Center store, Bed Bath & Beyond in May announced plans to shut down its Christiana Town Center and Coastal Highway stores as part of a company-wide wind down. In February, Tuesday Morning closed its last two Delaware stores in Hockessin’s Lantana Square and the Rehoboth Mall in Rehoboth Beach.
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Contact Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.
