National Retailer Closing 94 Stores, 3 in New Jersey

LL Flooring, the specialty flooring company formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, is holding closing sales at 94 retail locations in 30 states and three in New Jersey after it filed Sunday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Nationwide Flooring Store to Close 94 Locations

LL Flooring, which opened in 1994 as Lumber Liquidators, plans to close about a quarter of its 400 locations across the country.

There are 15 LL Flooring locations in New Jersey, including local stores in Pleasantville, Millville, Manahawkin, and Toms River.

All of the local LL Flooring stores have been spared this round of closings.

LL Flooring New Jersey locations in Mount Holly, Woodbridge, and Woodbury are closing.

When the Trouble Began for Retailer

While operating under the Lumber Liquidators brand name, the company was in the spotlight after a "60 Minutes" report found some of its flooring contained dangerous levels of formaldehyde.

In 2019, it agreed to pay $33 million in fines for misleading investors about levels of the chemical in its Chinese-made laminate flooring.

The Richmond, Virginia-based company said in the bankruptcy filings that slowing home sales and rising interest rates contributed to their slower sales.

LL Flooring Will Stop Accepting Gift Cards At All Locations

Here's a big heads up if you have a gift card for LL Flooring.

Even though none of the local South Jersey stores are closing, all LL Flooring stores will stop accepting gift cards as of Wednesday, Sept 4th and the cards can not be exchanged for cash.

The company says they are doing this as part of the bankruptcy process

LL Flooring says it has about $131 million in outstanding gift cards, according to USA Today.