Brookstone files for bankruptcy protection, plans sale

bizjournals.com ^ | 04/05/2014 | Staff Boston Business Journal

[massmike]

Brookstone, the seller of all sorts of unusual electronic items through channels including mall stores in Massachusetts, is filing for bankruptcy protection and plans to sell itself to rival Spencer, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Brookstone has Massachusetts locations in Boston, Holyoke, Peabody, Braintree, Marlborough, Wrentham, Burlington and Natick.

[Drango]

geek out.

[KarlInOhio]

Cool stuff to play with in the mall and then look for the equivalent item for one-quarter the price on the net. Sometimes I feel guilty about showrooming, but Brookstone is so overpriced that I feel no guilt at all.

[MeshugeMikey]

there has been a Brookstone in Corte Madera CA...

Im not certain its there as we “speak” but it was a couple of years ago.

[Sarah Barracuda]

They have one at our local mall, nice store, pretty expensive but boy they have the nicest massage chair 3,000+ but nice

[Paladin2]

Historically WAY overpriced merchandise.

[thecodont]

Sometimes I feel guilty about showrooming

Ah, there's a word for it?

I once bought a clock at a mall Brookstone store. The Brookstones seemed to be where tired shoppers would take a break in the foot massager chairs.

[bramps]

Spencer gifts, whose primary items are sex toys and pot paraphernalia, is buying them. Prepare for a whole new world of massage chairs!

[al baby]

Mrs al baby got me some sand that is so cool to play with check it out amazing stuff

[mojo114]

I worked for Brookstone in Peterborough, New Hampshire, back in the 1970’s. At that time it was located in Guernsey Cattle Building. There were about 25 employees and all did everything. The company was owned privately by the DeLongchamps. At that time, the beginning of the company, everything was all about rare and unusual tools. The magazine that went out monthly to hundreds was very successful.
I and many others, miss the original Brookstone for it’s wonderful tools.

[bicyclerepair]

Cool but WAY overpriced.

[massmike]

Brookstone drew attention in 2009 for firing man for holding to belief in only REAL marriage.

http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/09d/vadala/index.html

[Rembrandt]

“I and many others, miss the original Brookstone for it’s wonderful tools.”

Just like certain retired women’s tennis players.

[bigbob]

That’s what I remember too. Sadly the company lost its way.

[jjotto]

Didn’t Martina have an endorsement gig with Snap-On Tools?

[catnipman]

I’m surprised they lasted this long. They occupied a unique retailing and catalog niche for decades until Internet shopping brought competitors by the millions. There was no place on the Internet for a store that sells extremely overpriced merchandise and carried only a couple hundred items.

[LongWayHome]

Thanks for posting the Massachusetts story about this worker. I had not heard of it. Disgusting company IMO for subjecting this guy to loss of work for his so-called “thought-crime”.

[mojo114]

Yes it was owned privately for along time and then sold off. When I was there we were it, a very small company, but making money. The DeLongchamps sold out and moved on.
It was a great time. Looking back,I would never have known, that the company would be successful, we just worked hard to deliver products.
There was pride in finding unusual and rare tools and the product manager was German and searched for the tools. For many year’s the Brookstone catalog was something many looked forward to.

[originalbuckeye]

Agree. Haven’t bought from Brookstone in a while. Loved them and their stuff back in the day.

[massmike]

I only hope the trouble making lesbian manager went down with the ship,too. Good luck to her finding a job now! I know I wouldn’t hire her with that track record!