Employees and suppliers of Steve & Barry’s are getting burned by the retailer’s demise, and some are crying foul.
The Port Washington, LI-based retailer – which had hawked low-price fashion lines from celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker and Venus Williams – revealed in a court filing yesterday that it will close all 176 of the stores that remained following a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in July.
Retail bankruptcies typically leave suppliers on the hook for unpaid goods and services. But Adart Poly Bag – a Plainview, LI-based packaging manufacturer – says it was misled by the retailer and its co-founder, Steven Shore, into providing 500,000 shopping bags that Steve & Barry’s had no plans to pay for.
After Michael Guippone, Steve & Barry’s purchasing manager, called to request the bags, Adart Poly Bag owner Robert Wolk says he called Shaw, who told him to “do what you feel is right,” and said the company was paying its bills.
“I should have known something was up,” Wolk told The Post. “But I thought, ‘They’re not going to go under before the holidays,’ and that for this one order I’d be safe.”
Having demanded that half of the $100,000 order be paid up front, Wolk says he nevertheless faces “tens of thousands of dollars” in losses to his bottom line.
Wolk said he had tried recently to reach Guippone, the retailer’s purchasing manager, but “never heard back – no call, no e-mail, nothing.”
As it happened, Guippone was busy leading a federal class-action lawsuit against Steve & Barry’s. Filed this week, the suit alleges employees were laid off on Monday without the 60-day advance notice required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. According to the suit, at least 250 workers were fired Monday.
Sources said a few dozen workers remain.
Steve & Barry’s General Counsel Chris Fugarino declined to comment.
“I had been friendly with [Steve & Barry’s co-founder Shaw] for six or seven years – going to dinner with him and his wife a few times a year,” Wolk said. “I thought he’d look out for me a bit.”
The complaints follow a September incident in which a Steve & Barry’s executive accused an irate manufacturer of threatening the “health and safety” of employees.
The manufacturer was demanding payment for a $7,921.50 shipment of surfboards Steve & Barry’s ordered to promote a clothing line by surfer Laird Hamilton. james.covert@nypost.com