Recession, recession, recession. The word looms over the United States like a dark, rainy cloud. How is it that with the horrible economy that so many business are staying open? In the past year, thousands of businesses have closed their doors permanently, while others are revamping their sales strategies to improve profitability. The Sharper Image is one retailer that has been stomped out during this recession period.
In February of 2008, The Sharper Image, a high-tech gadget store filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and publicly stated that they were to close half of the 186 retail stores. However, due to steadily decreasing sales and eventually the sale of the company to the Hilco/Gordon partnership, the remaining 86 stores will now be closing their doors as well. With over $50 million in inventory to liquidate, the losses will be huge. The new owners have opted to revamp the image of the brand and still sell via the internet, direct to retail and catalog.
Many of the company's problems originated in 2003 when Consumer Reports reported that the expensive Ionic Breeze Air Cleaners didn't clean air. They also reported that some of the models were releasing potentially unhealthy levels of ozone. There was a huge consumer backlash against the brand and sales began to steadily decline shortly thereafter. From 2004 to 2008 the company had only reported net losses. Fortunately, the company was bought last May for $49 million. They will continue their multichannel retailing efforts, just without the physical retail store.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9956802-7.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/06/sharper_image.html