Store closing sale sign image via flickr user Phillip Pessar

Texas-based Tuesday Morning is the latest retailer to announce a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on May 27.

The company said in a court filing it would shutter 230 of its 687 stores. The filing lists locations that will be closed in a “first wave,” including 13 California stores.

On the list are Visalia’s Packwood Creek store and the 10,000 square-foot Fresno location at Barstow and Blackstone avenues. Staff at the Visalia store confirms they have been told to put up “store closing” sales signs as of May 28.

In court papers, Tuesday Morning officials said, “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Debtors have faced unprecedented challenges including rapidly declining sales at their retail locations.”

There are 133 stores expected to be closed beginning June 1, with a listing that includes the San Luis Obispo store. Ironically, that store is still shuttered due to Covid-19, but will apparently have to open its doors for the expected closing sales event. The company said before the bankruptcy filing that they had scheduled multi-state re-openings and were bringing associates back to work over the next few weeks.

Store locations in California set to close in this first wave include Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Fresno, Visalia, Thousand Oaks, Aliso Viejo, Pleasanton, Pleasant Hill, Santa Clarita, Culver City, Eureka, Union City, Placentia and Vacaville.

Tuesday Morning was launched in Dallas in 1974. The off-price retailer focuses on closeout home goods. The unique name comes from founder Lloyd Ross when he held his first “garage sale.” The story has been told that Ross decided on Tuesday Morning as the company name because “it is the first positive day of the week.”

Perhaps that is why they waited until Wednesday, May 27 to file their bankruptcy papers.