Saying good-buy: Shoppers mourn loss of stores in Augusta Exchange

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – There was a steady stream of customers Thursday at the Christmas Tree Shops store in Augusta, just a day after the company announced it was shutting down.

Customers were quietly talking about how sad they are that the store is closing along with the company’s roughly 70 other locations.

The customers, who were willing to wait in a busy checkout line, say they like the good deals at the store on Robert C. Daniel Jr. Parkway in the Augusta Exchange shopping center.

But on the bright side, the shopping center is getting BrandsMart USA, an electronics and appliance store. Plus there are murmurings of a new restaurant possibly coming to the former Macaroni Grill location. And the Target store in the shopping center is booming after undergoing a major remodeling.

DEVELOPING STORY:

• Hallie Turner is at the Augusta Exchange, where she’s talking to shoppers who are sad to see the Christmas Tree Shops go, while looking ahead to what’s coming to the shopping center. Watch for updates here on WRDW.com and all day on News 12.

At the Christmas Tree Shops location, there weren’t any closure signs up yet.

In fact, there were some now-outdated signs telling shoppers “Don’t worry. We’re staying here for you!”

Those signs went up earlier when the company planned to leave most of the stores open while developing a bankruptcy plan. As it turned out, the company wasn’t able to come up with enough money to pursue that plan, and abruptly decided just to shut down.

Just before 6 p.m. Wednesday, News 12 called and employees said they’d just found out about the plans to shut down all the stores.

PHOTO GALLERY: CHRISTMAS TREE SHOPS AND BUY BUY BABY

The employees said they were working on marking down merchandise and had no further specifics.

The chain is named for Christmas but sells a lot of other housewares and decor items for all seasons – a lot like Bed, Bath & Beyond, another chain that’s in the process of shutting down all it’s stores, including one that’s also in the Augusta Exchange.

Also in the shopping center, Buy Buy Baby is shutting down. That store’s shelves – with signs touting 50% off sales – were starting to look a little bare Thursday.

Houseware category-killer retail stores like these, once all the rage in the early 2000s, have been hit hard by online sales and superstore big-box chains and warehouse stores.

The closures of the three big stores pose a problem for the Augusta Exchange, which also recently lost the O’Charley’s restaurant.

COMING AND GOING:

• Lidl North Augusta closing due to slow business
• New Kroger taking shape near Dyess, Gordon Highway

Christmas Tree Shops disclosed in a court filing last week that it defaulted on a $45 million loan and is closing its approximately 70 stores.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May, but sales continued to decline and the chain ran out of the money it needed to implement the bankruptcy plan.

Last week, the company decided instead to close its stores, which sell a whole variety of things besides Christmas decorations.

Christmas Tree Shops’ history dates back to the 1950s, when the original small holiday store opened on Cape Cod, Mass.

In 1970, Chuck Bilezikian purchased the seasonal business, transforming it into a destination for one-of-a-kind items and low prices that became a year-round shopping destination largely anchored in the Northeast.

Over time, Christmas Tree Shops expanded into more states and moved beyond holiday items. The chain recently worked to rebrand itself as “CTS” — in hopes of underlining that its products are not isolated to seasonal goods.

In 2003, the Christmas Tree Shops chain was acquired by Bed Bath & Beyond, which also declared bankruptcy earlier this year. In 2020, the chain was sold to Handil Holdings, led by retail veteran Pam Salkovitz and entrepreneur Marc Salkovitz.

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