The Room Store (commonly stylized as RoomStore) was a chain of

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

retail stores in the eastern and southern United States, which operated from 1992 to 2012. The company, which was owned by RoomStore, Inc., specialized in retailing all the pieces of furniture for an entire room rather than individual pieces of furniture. For example, a

table Table may refer to: * Table (furniture), a piece of furniture with a flat surface and one or more legs * Table (landform), a flat area of land * Table (information), a data arrangement with rows and columns * Table (database), how the table data ...

may have been sold with chairs and other

dining room A dining room is a room (architecture), room for eating, consuming food. In modern times it is usually adjacent to the kitchen for convenience in serving, although in medieval times it was often on an entirely different floor level. Historically ...

accessories in a package rather than a table alone. The Room Store was ranked as one of the top 25 furniture retailers in the United States. A similar chain with the same name (known as The RoomStores of Phoenix, LLC) operated stores in Arizona from 1993 to 2016.

History

The Room Store was founded in 1992 in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

by Gary Levitz, grandson of the founder of

Levitz Furniture Levitz Furniture was a nationwide chain of American furniture stores that helped create the "furniture warehouse" genre of retail furniture sales. It was in business for nearly 100 years before liquidating in bankruptcy in early 2008. History ...

. The chain started with 4 stores in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. In 1999, Levitz was killed in a

plane crash An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

. The Room Store's then-parent company,

Heilig-Meyers Heilig-Meyers was a retail furniture store chain founded in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 1913 by two Lithuanian immigrants, W. A. Heilig and J. M. Meyers. Its corporate headquarters was in Richmond, Virginia. The chain grew to become th ...

, filed for

bankruptcy protection Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

in 2000; at the time, there were over 50 locations around the United States. in 2005, The Room Store, the only part of Heilig-Meyers remaining, received $35 million to emerge from bankruptcy. RoomStore, Inc. filed for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...

on December 12, 2011; in April 2012, it announced it would close all of the RoomStore stores in Texas. On June 29, 2012, RoomStore, Inc. announced that it would close all of its RoomStore stores in the eastern and southern United States beginning on August 2, 2012. All of those locations were closed on or before November 26, 2012. The twelve RoomStore-branded stores in Arizona (which were owned by The RoomStores of Phoenix, LLC) were not initially affected by the bankruptcy. However, on December 18, 2015, that company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Liquidation sales at all twelve stores began in January 2016, and those locations were permanently closed once the sales concluded on July 11, 2016. Continued effects of the 2008 real estate bubble and increased competition among furniture retailers in the Phoenix area were cited as reasons for the bankruptcy. Private investment company Oak Point Partners acquired the remnant assets, consisting of any known and unknown assets that weren't previously administered, from the RoomStore, Inc. Bankruptcy Estate on August 28, 2017.Order Approving the Sale of Certain Assets of the Debtor's Estate to Oak Point Partners
''Bankrupt Company News'', August 28, 2017

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Room Store Furniture retailers of the United States Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2000 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2011 Companies that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2012 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2015 Companies that have filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Retail companies established in 1992 Retail companies disestablished in 2012