Hurricane Sandy blew these stores into bankruptcy.
The company that operates Mandee and Annie Sez declared Chapter 11 last night, saying it can’t pay the bills because its insurance companies won’t cough up the cash owed from millions in hurricane-related claims, The Post has learned.
“If the insurance companies had been working with us through the process, we wouldn’t be in this position,” Alan Mandelbaum, the CEO of Big M. Inc, told The Post this morning. “We’re very disappointed. We were making significant progress.”
New Jersey-based Big M plans to keep its 129 stores open through the reorganization process while fighting for reimbursement from insurance carriers, totaling more than $6 million. There are no immediate plans to cut any of Big M’s 1,200 jobs.
Big M had been making a comeback through most of 2012 and was on track to turning a $1.9 million profit – a dramatic improvement from its $8 million loss the previous year, executives said. Then the monster hurricane hit, forcing Big M to shut its corporate offices and distribution center in Totowa, NJ, for a week. Sandy also caused major disruptions in sales and inventory heading into the retailer’s critical Christmas season.
josh.margolin@nypost.com