Fashion jewelry and accessories retailer Charming Charlie has been on the rocks financially for some time—many retail pundits added the chain of roughly 350 stores to their most-imperiled lists this summer.
Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the company is trying to secure a $15–$20 million loan to buoy its business ahead of the holiday season.
The retailer’s woes would certainly be minimized by such a loan, but the effects would likely be ephemeral. The Journal reports that the company is quickly burning through cash and faces default if finances don’t improve.
Retail Dive further reported this week that a Debtwire story emailed to the outlet revealed that the company’s investment banker, Guggenheim, was trying to raise capital “amidst a looming liquidity crunch.”
What’s sinking Charming Charlie? The retailer, which was founded in 2004, specializes in stores with large footprints that stimulate shoppers through volume and variety of merchandise. Everywhere you turn in a Charming Charlie store, you face a wall teeming with colorful, accessibly priced jewelry, hair doodads, scarf-and-glove sets, and the like.
But most of its stores are in shopping malls, which continue to see declining foot traffic. And the retailer’s target audience—millennials and the Gen Z set—is increasingly spending more online and less in actual stores.
(Top: Necklaces from Charming Charlie, @charmingcharlie)
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