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Hog Father's Old Fashioned BBQ, a Washington County, Pa.-based restaurant that includes a total of three locations, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported. Filed on Sept. 1, the legal action encompasses four separate filings for the local Washington County chain, which has locations in Washington, Canonsburg and Monongahela. The restaurants remain open and operating amid a chapter 11 filing that reveals estimated liabilities of between $500,000 and $1 million, the largest claim of which is for more than $683,000 by Reinhart Food Service LLC, a major food distributor. It's a restaurant that first opened in Washington County in the early days of the Marcellus Shale gas play in 2007, and the barbecue joint often thrived and expanded by serving the often Texas-based clientele who migrated to the region to work on the new natural gas rigs that expanded in western Pennsylvania at the time. So much so that the restaurant acknowledged that 40% of its business came from the oil and gas sector in the Pittsburgh Business Times in 2015, a period in which Hog Father's five locations included one in the lobby of the Washington County regional headquarters of Range Resources Corp., but for which two other restaurant openings were put on hold amid a decline in natural gas prices. It remains a very different world for natural gas production in western Pennsylvania, as the Marcellus play has evolved to more midstream activity and to the operation of the Shell cracker plant in nearby Beaver County. Other barbecue restaurants are expanding and opening in the region, including long-time North Side favorite Wilson's B-B-Q, which reopened recently on Perrysville Avenue after its previous location was lost in a fire in 2019.

Off Lease Only, a used-car retailer that ran six dealerships in Florida and Texas, filed for bankruptcy after shutting down, succumbing to the pandemic-fueled rise in used-car prices and fresh competition from traditional dealers that had jumped into the secondhand market, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The private company, owned by alternative investment firm Cerberus Capital Management and its founders, closed its operations when its liquidity dried up following deteriorating performance and after online bank Ally Bank tightened the terms and conditions on a credit line that financed the bulk of the company’s inventory, according to court papers filed by Leland Wilson, Off Lease Only’s former chief executive who now serves as an independent contractor for the company. The company started in 2004 and grew to be the biggest used car-dealership in Florida, according to Wilson’s filing. During the COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain disruptions pushed up vehicle prices and reduced the pool of relatively new used cars available for Off Lease Only. The company’s business model is centered on selling cars that are less than four years old and have been driven less than 40,000 miles, according to the court filing. By the middle of this year, used-car prices remained 40% above the prepandemic level, Wilson also said. Additionally, inflation and high interest rates have reduced customers’ ability to purchase cars, according to the court filing.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating billionaire Ryan Cohen’s ownership — and surprise sale — of Bed Bath & Beyond shares at a time when such so-called meme stocks were all the rage with investors, the Wall Street Journal reported. Cohen took a $120 million stake in Bed Bath & Beyond and pushed for changes to the housewares retailer’s sales strategy, but abruptly sold his 11.8% interest in August 2022, just days after tweeting positively about the company. The five-month investment netted him a profit of nearly $60 million. Cohen’s interest in the company spurred a frenzy of trading that caused its stock to soar 34% in a day before collapsing when he disclosed the sales, prior to which he had gotten three new members appointed to the board. The SEC has requested information from Cohen about his trades and his communications with officers or directors at Bed Bath & Beyond. The regulator has also sought records from some of the company’s current and former board members. Cohen founded online pet retailer Chewy and later developed a deep fan base of individual investors who herd into the stocks he buys. He most notably took control in 2021 of video game retailer GameStop, where he currently serves as executive chairman. A group of Bed Bath & Beyond investors sued Cohen last year in Washington, D.C., federal court, alleging he committed fraud because he was aware of bad news about the company that hadn’t been disclosed when he sold his shares. They claim his statements on Twitter and in SEC filings were part of a pump-and-dump strategy that left small investors nursing big losses.

Party City Holdco Inc. on Wednesday received court approval to exit bankruptcy and emerge with a leaner balance sheet, avoiding the fate of retail peers who stumbled in chapter 11 and ceased operations, Bloomberg News reported. The New Jersey-based retailer is set to hand ownership of the company to lenders and reduce its debt load by some $1 billion, according to court papers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones on Wednesday said he would approve the company’s restructuring plan. “This plan sets the company up for success going forward,” Ken Ziman, an attorney for the company, said during the hearing. “And most important, your honor, this is a plan that preserves thousands of jobs.” Other major retailers have not been so fortunate. Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. liquidated after failing to find a way to keep operating after chapter 11. The story is similar for home goods retailer Christmas Tree Shops LLC, while Jenny Craig Inc. opted to go straight into a liquidation after failing to find a rescuer. As part of the chapter 11 process, the company shuttered more than 60 stores across the country, but was able to keep the vast majority of its more than 700 stores open, according to court papers. “It wasn’t a wholesale exiting of lease locations,” said Ziman.

The Mitchell Gold Co. has filed for protection under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code listing assets and liabilities of between $10 million and $50 million, Furniture Today reported. The company, which suddenly shut down Aug. 23 telling its 533 employees the business couldn’t secure needed funding via a sign on the factory gate, said in the bankruptcy petition that funds would be available for distribution to unsecured creditors. The company estimated its number of creditors to be between 200 and 999. The filing said that the abrupt closure was necessary when PNC bank denied funding, and at that time the company ceased accepting customer deposits at all store locations. In its filing, the board of The Mitchell Gold Co. has approved the appointment of Dalton Edgecomb, senior managing director of Riveron, a consulting company, to act as chief restructuring officer.

Investment management firm CoVenture said it was preparing to discuss restructuring options for Benitago, a struggling e-commerce startup it funded, when it was surprised to learn the business which rolls up popular brands sold on Amazon.com Inc. instead filed bankruptcy, Bloomberg News reported. CoVenture lawyer Oscar Pinkas said on Friday during a bankruptcy hearing in New York the firm consented to waivers and forbearances on a loan it provided Benitago to aid the startup’s turnaround efforts. CoVenture invested in Benitago and is owed roughly $85 million in principal and deferred interest payments on its loan, according to court documents.

Benitago, one of a slew of investment groups that acquire businesses selling their products through Amazon, has filed for bankruptcy, less than two years after raising $325 million in funding, Wall Street Journal reported. The New York-based online seller sought protection from creditors Wednesday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, listing both assets and liabilities ranging from $50 million to $100 million. Tom Studebaker at advisory firm Portage Point Partners has been appointed as Benitago’s chief restructuring officer. The company, founded in 2016, operates in a small but lively wing of the e-commerce market in which groups of investors buy small third-party sellers on Amazon’s online marketplace and run them as a group, providing greater marketing and logistics expertise to the businesses. Many of those sellers use the Fulfillment by Amazon warehousing and delivery service and can gain better pricing when they consolidate their purchasing under a single owner.

Louisville-based Green District Salads has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to court documents, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. Green District, led by Green District Franchisee Parent Inc., filed for chapter 11 protection with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Kentucky Aug. 18, court records show. The fast-casual salad and sandwich-style restaurant operates at least eight locations in Louisville and the surrounding area, according to the restaurant's website. The company, represented by DelCotto Law Group PLLC., would be able to "restructure its creditor obligations to keep the business alive and pay back its debts over time" under chapter 11, according to the report. Opened by Jordan Doepke, Chris Furlow and Matt Petty, Green District's first store was opened in 2017 in St. Matthews. They have since added franchises in other states such as Indiana and Ohio. Lousiville-based investment company, The Castellan Group, was part of a private equity investment in the restaurant's expansion plans, according to previous Courier Journal reporting. The company planned a goal of $100 million in revenue from the restaurant by 2026.

Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, which grew from a small North Carolina-based upholstery maker to a national retail furniture chain, is shuttering operations, citing weak sales and trouble securing financing, CNN.com reported. About 500 employees in North Carolina are losing their jobs as a result of the closure, said interim CEO Chris Moye in a notice sent to the state’s Department of Commerce over the weekend. The separations are expected to happen in the two-week period that started August 26, according to the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice. Mitchell Gold and Bob Williams founded their business together in 1989. Over the decades, the firm evolved into a major furniture maker and seller, with its own signature retail stores and outlets, as well as virtual stores that offered design services in some regions. Furniture stores, especially high-end retailers like Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, have been struggling as people cut back on home improvement projects and big ticket items. Ethan Allen reported this month that in the quarter ending on June 30, retail net sales fell 17.2%.

Employees at the Bartell Drugs in Seattle’s Uptown neighborhood told customers on Monday that the location, one of the region’s last 24-hour pharmacies, will close Sept. 10, the Seattle Times reported. It’s the latest of half a dozen closures since the family-owned Bartell Drug pharmacy chain was purchased by Rite Aid in 2020 — but it may have the biggest impact on customers. After Sept. 10, the nearest 24-hour pharmacy will be a Walgreens near Issaquah, according to information provided to Bartell customers by staff at the pharmacy. On Tuesday, Rite Aid spokesperson Alicja Wojczyk confirmed the closure, but didn’t say if Rite Aid planned to convert another Bartell to a 24-hour schedule. Store staff, who began informing customers of the closure on Monday, said they were surprised by the news. Although Rite Aid has shuttered dozens of stores here and elsewhere as it grapples with heavy financial losses and legal woes, several employees said the Uptown location had remained busy. The store benefited from its central location, a large parking lot and proximity to a popular Metropolitan Market grocery, which sits below the drugstore, and had built up a large, loyal customer base, several employees said.