Century 21, A ‘Dangerously Addictive’ Place, Just Became The Latest Coronavirus Casualty

Century 21 Department Stores, a near 60-year-old New York retailer that’s a must-mention in travel books for the city, has just joined a growing list of coronavirus-hit retailers in filing for bankruptcy protection. 

The family-run retailer, which opened its first Downtown Manhattan store in 1961 across from the World Trade Center and pioneered the so-called off-price retail concept years before the birth of category leader T.J. Maxx parent TJX, said it plans to shut all of its 13 stores across New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Even though its stores have reopened doors in recent months after local governments’ mandated Covid-19 shutdowns, Century 21, known for selling brands from Gucci and Prada to Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger at a discount, said it made the decision after its insurance providers failed to pay about $175 million under business interruption policies to protect against losses led by the pandemic. 

“While insurance money helped us to rebuild after suffering the devastating impact of 9/11, we now have no viable alternative,” said Century 21 co-CEO Raymond Gindi. He said Century 21 was “confident” that it would have been able to recover from the loss of the shutdowns if it had “received any meaningful portion of the insurance proceeds.”

Century 21 wasn’t alone. Across the country, over 1,000 lawsuits reportedly have been filed against insurance companies. Insurance industry trade group American Property Casualty Insurance Association has said that business interruption insurance policies don’t “typically cover losses related to viruses.” 

“So sad about the news!” said a Facebook user named Loretta Jessica on Century 21’s  page Thursday. “Why can’t you keep 1 store open? NY won’t be the same without you!” 

Before the news and the pandemic upended its plan, Century 21, like many other retailers, was also attempting changes in the face of increased online competition, lower tourist travel flow, changing fashion preferences of millennials and Gen Z shoppers, and consumers spending more of their discretionary dollars on electronics and other things instead of fashion. Bigger rivals like T.J. Maxx that has added a high-end “The Runway” off-price collection also threatens to chip away some of the traditional exclusive holds Century 21 has had on some luxury brands.

 This past holiday season, Century 21 opened its first-ever pop-up shop in New York’s Herald Square area. It also has opened a “Next Century” boutique at its flagship location with a curated high-low-priced mix that co-owner Isaac Gindi had told me was aimed to be its answer to attract younger shoppers and serve as “the prototype of future stores.” The company also had plans to open smaller stores and expand from its existing locations to “urban, very heavy demographic places with tourists.” It was even thinking of expanding to the West Coast.

“You have to adapt and change,” Gindi said in an interview late last year. “You can’t stay the same way…. We are not giving up.”

But this time, the odds against it looked to be too big.

Century 21’s filing added it to a growing list of other famed U.S. retailers, from Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney to Brooks Brothers and Lord & Taylor, that have also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the wake of the pandemic that forced store closings and travel restrictions. 

“I shopped there for so many years in the 80s and 90s before moving away,” said another Facebook user named Karen Martin. “I worked in WTC1 in 1993…. End of an era.” 

At Century 21’s flagship location in downtown Manhattan recently, while some mask-donning shoppers have returned for deals including “Sale of the Century” promotions that marked already discounted items by another 75% off, what was decidedly missing was the throngs of European and other foreign and U.S. tourists who used to pack the store. 

“We are famous in Europe, more famous than we are in America,” Gindi had told me. 

Travel guide Lonely Planet has listed the store as “the top choice” for fashion and accessories in New York’s Financial District and Lower Manhattan. 

“For penny-pinching fashionistas, this giant cut-price department store is dangerously addictive,” Lonely Plant’s travel guide said. “It’s physically dangerous as well, considering the elbows you might have to throw to ward off the competition beelining for the same rack.”

It’s not just for penny-pinching fashionistas, the company’s website lists celebrities from Kim Kardashian to Ed Norton who’ve shopped its store while Sarah Jessica Parker’s character, Carrie Bradshaw, on HBO’s show Sex and the City had also given the store a shout out. 

“We can’t have an NYC without Century 21,” said an Instagram user with account name Jeffejeffej.

The list of its shoppers lamenting the end of yet another New York icon grows longer.

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