, Columnist
Why Retailers Don't Recover from Bankruptcy: Echoes
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On Feb. 27, about 14 months after it filed for bankruptcy, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. won court approval to resume normal operations as a privately held company. If history is a useful guide, the firm that was the world’s largest retailer for much of the 20th century will have a hard time regaining its retail luster.
A&P, which at its peak owned almost 16,000 grocery stores in the U.S. and Canada, is the latest in a very long line of retailers that have turned to the bankruptcy courts to fix their problems.