Container Store with 6 Illinois Locations Bankrupt, But It’s Fine

There have been so many retail bankruptcy reports this year and especially recently and most end with store locations closing. Not this time. The Container Store with 6 Illinois locations has just declared bankruptcy, but everything is fine. Well, it's probably fine.

I saw this bulletin from Business Wire and immediately thought it meant a worst-case scenario for those who are fans of The Container Store which has 6 locations in Illinois. The statement confirms that the company has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy but they will remain "Open for business with no impact on customers; store operations, online sales, and in-home services will continue as normal". 

What does Chapter 11 bankruptcy mean?

Since I'm no financial expert (understatement of the century), I defer to the United States Courts which define the chapter 11 version of bankruptcy as a reorganization to explain it in the simplest terms. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the type that allows creditors to sell off assets of a company or individual to pay debts and can mean liquidation.

It sounds like The Container Store believes this reorganization will allow it to position itself for growth or, at the very least, not losing any of their retail footprint that's already been built.

At the end of the day, the news that this company with Illinois places will not close stores or lay off workers is good news - for now.