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Fabric and crafts retailer Joann Inc. filed for bankruptcy, unable to sustain its debt load after a sales boom during pandemic lockdowns faded, Bloomberg News reported. The Hudson, Ohio-based chain will be delisted after the bankruptcy proceedings and be privately owned by “certain of its lenders and industry parties,” according to a company statement released as it filed a chapter 11 petition in Delaware today. The filing listed liabilities of $1 billion to $10 billion. Joann’s lenders struck a restructuring deal to provide about $132 million in new financing that would help the company reduce debt by about $505 million, the firm said. The parties in the deal also agreed to a six-month extension of certain loans and credit facilities.

Sushi Garage, LLC, a Japanese restaurant in Miami Beach aims to reorganize its business through chapter 11 bankruptcy, the South Florida Business Journal reported. The sushi restaurant, which is a subsidiary of the hospitality-focused Juvia Group, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida on March 12. Sushi Garage was founded by local restaurateurs Jonas and Alexandra Millán and chef partner Sunny Oh. It launched in 2016 with a 4,000-square-foot, 100-seat restaurant in the Sunset Harbour neighborhood of Miami Beach. The restaurant is located at 1784 West Ave. The 19-page bankruptcy filing lists Jonas Millán as the managing member of Sushi Garage, LLC. Sushi Garage’s bankruptcy filing says the company estimates it has 50 to 99 creditors and owes less than $3 million in debt. The restaurant also estimates it has assets and liabilities valued at between $1 million and $10 million.

Discount retailer 99 Cents Only Store LLC is exploring a debt restructuring, and some bondholders have hired advisory firm Portage Point Partners for talks, Bloomberg Law reported. Portage’s retention follows the investors’ earlier engagement of Weil Gotshal & Manges for legal advice, Bloomberg News reported last August, after the company moved certain real estate assets out of creditors’ collateral packages. 99 Cents, meanwhile, is working with a cadre of advisers including Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and law firm Milbank. Moody’s Ratings downgraded 99 cents to Caa3 in November, citing factors including the retailer’s “much-weaker-than- anticipated operating performance.” The credit grader said that free cash flow was expected to remain negative. The company’s bond due in 2026 last traded in February around 34 cents the dollar, according to Trace data. 99 Cents operates nearly 400 stores in California and southwestern states.

A bankruptcy judge in Pennsylvania dismissed Boston Market owner Jay Pandya’s second bankruptcy filing Friday, according to court documents, Retail Dive reported. The dismissal includes a six-month ban on filing another Chapter 11 petition. Pandya filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in February. His first bankruptcy case was dismissed in January after Pandya failed to fulfill the court’s request to provide additional information within a two-week period. It appears unlikely Boston Market will have the finances to stay afloat or grow. Earlier this year, Boston Market was ordered to pay U.S. Foods about $12 million over unpaid bills. The company has also faced several wage and hour violations, and has been sued over 150 times, largely over unpaid bills, Restaurant Business reports. In January, Boston Market laid out what appeared to be a turnaround plan to bring the chain’s food into non-traditional locations and to start rotating various international dishes every six weeks. At the time, the chain said that it was offering no buy-in fees for franchisees and was targeting locations like existing restaurants, delis and gas stations. As of February, Restaurant Dive found that no stores it contacted had heard of or had begun offering the two Indian-inspired dishes mentioned in the original press release.

Gizmo Brew Works, a Raleigh, N.C.-based brewery with taprooms across the Triangle, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to court documents, Axios.com reported. Founded in 2013, Gizmo expanded significantly in the past few years — going from one location in Raleigh to opening taprooms on Chapel Hill's Franklin Street and in Durham's University Hill development. Gizmo — known for beers like the Raleigh Red red ale and Carolina Pine India pale ale — reported assets between $100,000 to $500,000 and debts between $1 million and $10 million. The brewery's largest debt was nearly $1 million to Wilmington-based Live Oak Bank. It's been a rough stretch for breweries that have tried to expand coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gizmo opened a significant remodel of Chapel Hill's old Rathskeller in February 2020, right before bars were closed by the spread of the disease. Gizmo's management said business after the pandemic has not recovered to a level to balance its debt from expansion.

Rite Aid, the drugstore chain that filed for bankruptcy late last year to seek relief from mass opioid-related lawsuits, is delaying severance payments to employees who were laid off, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The email sent on Thursday said that Rite Aid has made “difficult decisions” over the course of its restructuring, including store closures and reductions in force, and that the company “must now take another difficult action to further preserve cash in the short-term.” The Philadelphia-based company said in a statement Friday that “we have resolved the matter and are resuming severance payments.” “Those who were impacted are being notified and can expect to receive their payments by the middle of next week,” the company said.

The Body Shop announced this month that it has closed all its stores in the United States as it filed for bankruptcy, The Hill reported. The Body Shop Canada Limited, the Canadian subsidiary of the UK-based cosmetics company, said it was working on ways to restructure and that its 105 store locations were currently open for business, according to the company announcement. But 33 store locations were starting liquidation sales, as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. Online sales in Canada also stopped. The Body Shop describes itself as “a once pioneering beauty brand known for its cruelty free heritage and ethical beauty products,” according to the announcement. It was founded by human rights activist Anita Roddick and was one of the first cosmetic companies to prohibit animal testing on products.