Claire's filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in a decade and began liquidation before selling the majority of its North American business to private-equity firm Ames Watson for $104 million, with plans to keep some stores open. The retailer built its brand on low-cost, brightly colored accessories and ear piercing aimed at preteen girls. The business depends on mall traffic and heavily relies on imports; 56 percent of inventory came from China between November 2024 and April 2025. Inflation, higher interest rates, rising labor costs, tariffs, and about half a billion dollars of debt have squeezed margins and complicated operations.
Mostly, I remember the fluffy pens. When I was in elementary and middle school, nothing could be cooler than a fluffy pen, at least until it got covered in backpack grime and started to look like an exceptionally long-tailed subway rat. And no place had fluffy pens in abundance like Claire's, a chain that sold accessories and other trinkets and, at the time, seemed to exist in every shopping center in America.
But Claire's is in trouble. Earlier this month, the company filed for bankruptcy protection, for the second time in a decade, and began liquidating. Today, it announced that it would be selling the majority of its North American business to the private-equity firm Ames Watson, for $104 million, with the intention of keeping some of its stores open. Claire's has been saved, at least in the short term, but Ames Watson has its work cut out for it.
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