In 1995, the arts and crafts chain Michaels acquired their competitor Aaron Brothers and expanded from 71 stores to 97 over the following years. On March 21st, 2018, after about a year of deliberating on how to proceed with disappointing sales from Aaron Brothers, Michaels announced that it would close all but 3 Aaron Brothers locations, which would continue as custom framing-only locations. Aaron Brothers customers had until May 17th to place custom orders. A month later, Michaels rebranded their framing counter by renaming it Aaron Brothers Custom Framing.

Soon after the announcement that the chain was going out of business, the Aaron Brothers stores received word that they would no longer have contact with their district managers. Instead the liquidation company Gordon Brothers took over to oversee the operations of the stores. Augmented product was sent to increase traffic and drive sales at all locations; this meant dog toys, dish towels, draft pillows, kitchen storage sets, and many other things that would normally be out of place at an art store. Some stores even received unsold merchandise from the recently closed Toy R US stores, also liquidated by Gordon Brothers.

For the employees who remained until the stores closed, the final months were plagued by limited information. For example, some stores were initially told that they would close by the end of June only to find out that the date had been pushed back to sometime by the end of July. Job offers started coming in from nearby stores or even customers. However, many employees found it difficult to plan for their next jobs without a clear end date. In a long string of emails between all the stores around the country people expressed their frustration with the lack of communication from the corporate office and the apparent disregard for employee concerns. Some got fed up and quit.

By the second week of July, and in what seemed like a cruel joke, employees with overdue training sessions were urged to complete them right away. On July 18th it was finally confirmed that all stores would have to close by July 31st. In the last couple of weeks product flew out the doors thanks to generous discounts for buying in bulk. Everything became available for sale: furniture, fixtures, framing tools. If it was not nailed to the floor or a wall, people could make an offer and buy it. In an effort to clear everything out by the month’s end many people walked out with free things in the final days.

This project documents the closing o f one store.