Coldwater Creek’s creditors are at a loss to understand why sales boomed in the wake of its bankruptcy filing, but it’s not a mystery to the former retailer’s target customers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. Coldwater Creek launched in the Midwest some 30 years ago and catered to mature, educated women. The line caught on among a crowd of people, including professional women, who didn’t have the time or patience to go from store to store to find comfortable classics. When Coldwater Creek shoppers found out the company was going under, they stocked up, according to Massachusetts attorney Alanna Cline, who identified herself as “a very satisfied and needy customer — notwithstanding the decline in quality and design over the past couple of years.” The prospect of saving a couple more bucks at going-out-of-business sales wasn’t worth the risk that favorite items would be sold out, it seems. “Fear and need” drove a run on the Coldwater Creek website, according to Cline.
