Popular home goods chain files for bankruptcy amid tariff trouble

[demmiblue]

Source: CNN

At Home, a popular home goods retailer with 260 stores across 40 US states, has filed for bankruptcy, citing the backdrop of tariff increases and a slowdown in consumer spending.

The Dallas-based company announced Monday that it had entered an agreement with its lenders that “will eliminate substantially all” of its roughly $2 billion in debt and provide $200 million in fresh funding to keep At Home operating while it navigates the Chapter 11 process.

Brad Weston, At Home’s CEO who joined the company last year, said in a statement that the company is “operating against the backdrop of an increasingly dynamic and rapidly evolving trade environment as we navigate the impact of tariffs” and that the changes “will improve our ability to compete in the marketplace in the face of continued volatility and increase the resilience of our business for the long term.”

Businesses across the United States are grappling with uncertainty about tariffs, including on the countries from which At Home sources its products, notably China. At one point, American tariffs on that country were as high as 145% before an agreement last month to temporarily lower that to 30%.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/16/business/at-home-bankruptcy-closures

[BoRaGard]

1. "We did that. Ha ha. Suckers." - Krasnov (R-Felon/Rapist) & Billionaire G.O.P. Kronies

[Bengus81]

2. Tariffs? That company was in trouble way before Fat Hitler did tariffs

$2B in debt didn't come from recent tariffs,it came from them running that Company into the ground with over paid bad management.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Yes, but companies can be skirting disaster & maybe even recovering when hit with external events. . . . nt

[uncle ray]

11. not likely once private equity vulture capitalists step in.

it's hard to save a company that is stripped of assets and burdened with debt and mismanagement fees.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Another Pier One going down.

[madaboutharry]

4. They need to look in the mirror and ask why they had so much stuff in their stores that people didn't want to buy.

Their stores are a mess. They look like the aftermath of a picked over jumble sale. There would be one nice thing worth buying among 10 pieces of junk.

Blaming their financial situation on Tariffs is BS.

[marble falls]

6. The numbers are screwy. 260 stores and $2B in debt? A lot of these are in smaller towns, there's one in Kingsland ...

... and they are not big box sized. That's $8+M debt load per unit (off the top of my head).

[UpInArms]

7. A lot of dead inventory?

And overpaid executives

[marble falls]

10. Executives or looters?

[UpInArms]

15. Looters

Our data indicates that At Home Group Inc. is worth US$383m, and total annual CEO compensation is US$43m. (This is based on the year to January 2019). While we always look at total compensation first, we note that the salary component is less, at US$785k. When we examined a selection of companies with market caps ranging from US$200m to US$800m, we found the median CEO total compensation was US$1.8m.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-home-group-inc-nyse-105020756.html

[House of Roberts]

8. Sounds like a vulture capitalist looting to me.

Get control, load it up with debt, and dump the burden on the creditors.

[marble falls]

9. Sounds like a scam to me, too.

[IbogaProject]

12. One I saw in Middletown, NY

It was fairly large. This is coming for lots of inventory heavy stores. If a majority of the younger generation can't afford to buy a house than they won't be buying At Home's or other retailers products.

[marble falls]

13. If they can't buy a house, they will make the rental "livable". That's what we did when we boomers couldn't afford ...

... to own. Which I couldn't, until I was almost 50. We bought a house in a town in Nebraska everyone else was moving out of in the '91 for $17,000. When we moved six years later after making it nice, we got $15,000 for it. Just enough to down pay for our condo in Marble Falls. The majority of every generation has not owned their homes.

[ret5hd]

14. bought by Hellman & Friedman (private equity)...

in 2021.

nothing to see here…things are going exactly as planned.

[Silent Type]

16. Probably because they had no other source of capital. Their options: 1. Shut down immediately and fire everyone; or

2. Find a loan shark -- PE -- to extend things a bit in hopes of a recovery.

They like Toys-R-Us, and many others, chose that latter.

[ArizonaLib]

20. After renting for 5 months

Decided to stop finishing the furnishing our apartment since moving in after the election. Ehite knuckling. Went to At Home once - we left thinking it featured used furniture. Everything apoeared a little dingy.

[Marthe48]

17. The premiere antique store and a vintage shop have closed

I don't go downtown much. When I drove by Sat. I saw that the antique store on Front St. was closed and empty. I liked that place. It's been there for years. The owner was a little younger than I am. I was surprised it is closed. On the way out to my neighborhood, there was a vintage shop with vendors. It is closed and the building is for sale.

I think it's true that people are holding off buying things for homes new or used, whether they own or rent. I closed my booth in March, knowing that felon was going to make any enterprise a challenge to keep afloat (and, didn't want to reduce my part in his economy) I'm in groups on fb whose members buy and sell in the secondary market. They have noted that unless things are priced super cheap and are useful, they aren't selling. Other people, I think here on DU, noted that even if Good Will isn't selling new things, they are marking up their used stuff for some reason. They seem to be forgetting that many of their buyers are there because they can't afford shopping for new things.

[Wicked Blue]

18. I never liked At Home

They were always overstocked with useless stuff, badly understocked on common household items. And overpriced. I went to an At Home Store a couple of years ago looking for a shower curtain. There were maybe 3 styles, none of which I liked. Burlington stores usually carry a much wider selection of shower curtains. I don't believe I've ever bought anything in an At Home.

[MagickMuffin]

19. Was curious about Brad Weston and his salary

Brad Weston is an American film producer and retail business CEO. From 2011 to 2016, he was the president and CEO of New Regency, then serving as the CEO to lead Party City into collapse, and has most recently been appointed as CEO of At Home (store) a week before it too filed for bankruptcy protection.

Here’s a list of his movie involvement

Producer
Guinevere (1999)
Track Down (2000)
How to Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (2000)
Prozac Nation (2001)
Footloose (2011)
One Chance (2013)
A Million Little Pieces (2018)
Queen & Slim (2019)
Not Okay (2022)
A Thousand and One (2023)
Chang Can Dunk (2023)
Killer Heat (2024)
Opus (2025)
Executive producer
The 4th Floor (1999)
Scary Movie 2 (2001)
The Grey Zone (2001)
My Boss's Daughter (2003)
Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Cursed (2005)
Runner Runner (2013)
Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)

I guess helping to drive out businesses is a sure fire way to finance the movies.