Tweeter Shuts All Stores
May File For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Protection
By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 12/2/2008
Canton, Mass. — Tweeter terminated its corporate staff yesterday afternoon and shuttered all of its remaining stores this morning, days before a planned weekend shutdown.
The move is believed to be a precursor to a conversion from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to complete liquidation under Chapter 7.
Employees and liquidators were reportedly given no advance notice of the action, and the status of remaining inventory and undelivered customer orders remains unclear.
Tweeter’s chief restructuring officer Craig Boucher declined to comment on the closings, aside from advising TWICE to await a formal announcement. Calls to chairman George Schultze were not returned at post time.
However, attorney Joe Huston of Stevens & Lee, the proposed counsel to the official committee of unsecured creditors, said a motion was filed today and will be heard in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware tomorrow.
Phone calls made to Tweeter locations around the country were not answered, although the chain-wide closures were confirmed by numerous employees, including Michael Simon, a general manager of a Sound Advice store in Fort Myers, Fla. Simon said all stores had been slated to close Dec. 7, but that he was instructed not to open this morning and to turn away his staff. The store still holds about $100,000 in inventory, and $50,000 in prior purchases remains unfulfilled, he said.
Promised bonuses and unused vacation time will not be paid, Simon and other staffers said.
Tweeter filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, citing “a severe liquidity crisis brought on by slow sales caused by declines in discretionary consumer spending.”
The 36-year-old chain, which was acquired last year by Schultze Asset Management after a previous bankruptcy filing, estimated its liabilities at between $50 million and $100 million.
Clickhereto read TWICE's complete coverage of Circuit City and Tweeter.
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When they closed the first time I was let go but it was made very well know to me they would bring me back. I sat on my couch drinking beer till Russ gave me the phone call I was waiting for. I am back on my couch waiting for Russ to call me again. He has not called me and I keep on waiting. The other day I made a packy run, when I came back the phone was ringing and I missed it. Russ was that you? Call me, unemployment dose not last forever.
Motion - 2009-14-12 22:24:27 EST -
I hear ya OPS. Things are starting to pick up here in Dallas in the industry, but only slightly. The Tweeter peeps here are scattered around at other A/V companies.
bothdmotw - 2009-7-12 11:06:36 EST -
One year ago I was let go. I am still on my couch drinking beer and loving unemployment. Thank you George.
Motion - 2009-6-12 14:21:51 EST -
I have to agree about the decline in quality of the people who got into Tweeter over the years. I could go on for hours about it so I'll only mention the highlights. I recall the CEO wandering around the store one Christmas with that wireless TWOD thing in hand thinking it would save Tweeter. I had a GSM who is now sitting in prison cuz he had a thing for some eleven year old girl's feet. I had a RSM who was harder to track down than Bigfoot. I had an ASM who couldn't make it to work one day cuz his parents locked him out of the house the night before and he had to sleep in his car. I had a FOM who was so terrified of Sarbanes Oxley he would soil his pants if you mentioned it. and I had a field supervisor who just stopped coming to work so he could pursue his drug habit. yeah, it got pretty bad.
motion - 2008-15-12 13:43:00 EST -
I feel for the former employees that were successful at their job and really cared. This covers a very small percentage of us. Tweeter turned into a FAT, GREEDY, BLACK HOLE of a company that was ultimatly run into the ground by the over paid, under experienced, clicky executives (with the exception of a very few) and those ineffective idiots are probably on their way to ruining other companies as we speak. Why are they not being investigated and held accountable.
Tweeter was filled with decision makers including most general store managers who had neither the balls or the brains to make even the smallest of decisions. Had the company dropped the dead weight of the useless GSM''s and lackey salespeople who didn''t take their jobs seriously, those of us who cared would still be working for a great company. Instead the weak and incompetent were promoted based on who could polish the best Yankee''s bat (yeah you know who I am talking to). I can''t wait until these lazy morons start working for other companies. They will then see what it is to really work instead of hiding in the office making personal calls all day, while ordering other people to do their job.
All that is over now and thank God! Tweeter is gone, CC on its way out and the worst of the Tweeter employees will probably go on to other things not involving audio / video and probably mess that up too!
This is great news because it leaves a great promising industry to the rest of the hard working talented people who care and can make it work.
Former Tweeter Employee - 2008-15-12 13:09:00 EST
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