Thursday, January 16, 2020

Pier 1 stores in Rockville, Gaithersburg to close

Montgomery County's moribund economy is hitting the home furnishings sector. Pier 1 Imports is closing in Rockville and Gaithersburg; both stores have disappeared from the Pier 1 website Store Locator. No official announcement or closing date for either store has been issued by Pier 1's corporate office.

It's interesting that Pier 1 stores in areas with booming economies like Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Waldorf, Bowie, Pasadena, Laurel and Columbia - to name just a few - are remaining open in our region. Pier 1 has been a fixture in Rockville as long as I can remember. 

The pending closures would have come as a shock if it were not for the widespread consensus that Montgomery County's economy has stagnated, according to every relevant benchmark of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics over the last decade. Montgomery County has suffered a net loss of retail jobs since the turn of the century, according to the Maryland Retailers Association.

15 comments:

  1. Beavis, he said "moribund" again. Heh heh.

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    1. This comment sure sounds like something one would overhear at the Montgomery County Council building.

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  2. More people are buying Pier 1-type junk online now. Certainly that has something to do with the closures.

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    1. While online shopping is certainly a factor in retail today, the fact that Pier 1 is not closing all stores suggests local factors are more to blame in this case.

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  3. What does this guy do for a living that he knows so much about economic development and retail?

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    1. I've been reporting on both for more than a decade, and unlike the County Council, I actually understand how business works in the year 2020.

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    2. How can someone who has never held a paying job "understand how business works"?

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  4. Montgomery county is terrible

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  5. Heil Dyer!!!! Saul and Sorus will not replace Robert.

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  6. Obama's Iran policy was to let Iran have the freedom and money to wage wars and take over other countries in the middle east.Lebanon and Iraq and Yemen and Syria are all being taken over by Iran.Iran was behind the 1983 Hezbollah bombing which killed 250 US Marines in Beirut.Iran sponsored many other acts of terror and mayhem. Trump was a genius for killing Soleimani.

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    1. Reminder - Ronald Reagan sold missiles to the Iranians just two years after the Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up.

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  7. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/05/iran-nuclear-deal-flawed/559595/

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  8. The Obama iran nuclear deal or JCPOA is a joke.

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  9. In my career I have interacted with reporters who covered a subject area; covering it didn't mean they understood it. Sometimes you have to prove yourself with experience. If no one will hire you to run something in the field you cover, or even to be a PR flack in that field, maybe that says something about your value to others.

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    1. I have proven myself - everything I've warned people about has come to pass on issue after issue in the County.

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