Pier 1 Vowed it Wouldn't Join the Dumb Camp ... And Then it Did

Pier 1 Imports Inc. didn’t do much for investor confidence by returning to storewide promotions recently, just six months after its CEO vowed not to do so.

Pier 1 shares lumped 5.2 percent on Monday, their second biggest daily percentage drop this year, after Wedbush analyst Seth Basham downgraded the stock to neutral from outperform. A big catalyst: His recent store checks found Pier 1 had resorted to “aggressive” blanket percentage off store-wide sales.

That was surprising to Basham because Chief Executive Alex Smith last September described a strategy offering store-wide promotions as relegating a retailer to the “dumb camp.”