Bloomberg Law
March 19, 2020, 8:00 PMUpdated: March 19, 2020, 8:53 PM

Art Van Furniture to Close All Stores Amid Virus Outbreak (1)

Leslie A. Pappas
Leslie A. Pappas
Staff Correspondent

Bankrupt retailer Art Van Furniture LLC will immediately halt sales in all stores due to the spread of the new coronavirus in the latest sign of how the pandemic is interfering with going-out-of-business sales.

“We can’t have a going-out-of-business sale if there’s no one coming to buy the merchandise,” one of the company’s attorneys, Michael Barrie of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, said Thursday. “Let’s put this in a coma for a little bit.”

The federal emergency and government directives in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania have driven customers out of stores, another Benesch attorney representing Art Van, Gregory W. ...