It was the quintessential "treasure hunt" store. You’d walk into a Christmas Tree Shops location in the middle of July—past the oversized garden gnomes and the $5 porch mats—and somehow walk out with a wicker chair, three bags of specialty ginger snaps, and a set of cloth napkins you didn’t know you needed. Then, seemingly overnight, the doors locked for good.
The story of the Christmas Tree Shops isn't just about a retail chain that couldn't pay its bills. It is a cautionary tale of how a beloved brand can get strangled by corporate debt, bad timing, and a changing consumer landscape that values convenience over the "thrill of the find." For decades, shoppers in the Northeast and beyond treated these stores like a weekend pilgrimage. Now, the brand exists mostly in the memories of people who still have "CTS" branded storage bins in their basements.
The Identity Crisis That Started in Cape Cod
Most people don't realize the Christmas Tree Shops actually started as a tiny boutique in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts. Back in the 1970s, it wasn't a big-box monster. It was a seasonal shop. Charles Bilezikian and his wife, Doreen, bought the original shop in 1970 and turned it into a quirky, year-round discount destination.
The name was always a bit of a joke. People would ask, "Do you only sell trees?" No. They sold everything. From high-end ceramics to the weirdest snacks imaginable. The Bilezikians understood something fundamental about the human brain: we love a bargain, but we love the discovery of a bargain even more.
By the time Bed Bath & Beyond bought them in 2003 for about $200 million, the chain was a regional powerhouse. But that’s where things started to get messy. When a massive corporation buys a "quirky" local favorite, the soul of the store often gets squeezed out in favor of standardized inventory and rigid supply chains. Bed Bath & Beyond tried to expand the brand, taking it into the Midwest and the South, but they struggled to explain to new customers why they should shop at a place called "Christmas Tree Shops" in the middle of April.
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Why the Bankruptcy Actually Happened
A lot of folks think Amazon killed the Christmas Tree Shops. That’s a lazy explanation. While e-commerce played a role, the real assassin was corporate debt and mismanagement.
In 2020, Bed Bath & Beyond—which was already circling the drain itself—sold Christmas Tree Shops to Handil Holdings. Handil had big plans. They even tried to rebrand the stores as "CTS" to move away from the seasonal confusion. But they took on massive amounts of debt to keep the lights on.
- Supply Chain Nightmares: In 2021 and 2022, the cost of shipping containers skyrocketed. For a store that relies on cheap, imported "knick-knacks," paying $20,000 for a shipping container that used to cost $2,000 is a death sentence.
- The Rent Trap: Many of their locations were in expensive "power centers." High rent plus low margins equals a very short runway.
- Loss of Selection: Towards the end, the "treasure" disappeared. Shelves were filled with generic items you could find at any Dollar General. The magic was gone.
By the time they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 2023, the company owed between $50 million and $100 million. They initially thought they could save about 60 stores. They couldn't. By July 2023, the plan shifted from "reorganize" to "liquidate everything."
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The Psychological Hook of the "Bargain Bin"
Why did we care so much? Honestly, it’s about the dopamine.
Expert retail analysts like Burt Flickinger have often pointed out that "off-price" retail—think TJ Maxx or Marshalls—is one of the few sectors that usually resists the "Amazon effect." You can't replicate the experience of digging through a bin and finding a $40 designer candle for $6 on a website. Christmas Tree Shops mastered this.
They used a "scarcity" model. If you saw a set of Adirondack chairs for $29, you knew they’d be gone by Tuesday. This forced immediate purchases. You didn't "think about it." You bought it. When the company lost its ability to source those unique, one-off deals, the shoppers stopped coming.
The Aftermath: What’s Left?
If you drive past the old locations today, you’ll see a mix of Spirit Halloweens, Floor & Decor outlets, or just empty, cavernous shells. The liquidation sales in the summer of 2023 were a somber affair. Discounts started at 10%—which many shoppers found insulting—and eventually hit 90% when there was nothing left but broken shelving and dusty ornaments.
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There has been talk about the brand name being bought. Intellectual property is valuable. We saw it happen with Toys "R" Us and Linens 'n Things. A digital-only version of Christmas Tree Shops might pop up one day, but it’ll never be the same. You can’t recreate the smell of a CTS store—that weird mix of potpourri, cardboard, and salt air—on a smartphone screen.
Actionable Steps for the Former CTS Super-Fan
If you’re still mourning the loss of your favorite Saturday morning haunt, you don't have to give up the "treasure hunt" lifestyle. You just have to pivot.
- Check out Ocean State Job Lot: If you’re in the Northeast, this is the closest spiritual successor. They have the same erratic inventory and "deal-of-the-week" energy.
- Target the "Bullseye Playground": It’s basically the mini-version of what CTS used to be. It satisfies that craving for cheap, seasonal home decor.
- Watch Liquidation Auctions: Sites like BidOnFusion or B-Stock are where the actual inventory from stores like this often ends up. If you have the space to buy a pallet, you can find the old CTS stock for pennies.
- Support Local "Closeout" Stores: Small, independent discount shops often buy the overstock that CTS used to snatch up. They need your business more than the big-box giants do.
The era of the massive, quirky discount warehouse is fading. Retail is becoming more "efficient," which is another way of saying it's becoming more boring. Christmas Tree Shops was many things, but it was never boring. It was a chaotic, overcrowded, confusing mess of a store, and that’s exactly why we loved it.