Howard’s Appliance Inc., the longstanding retail chain in Southern California that cited tariffs and declining consumer spending for its collapse, filed for bankruptcy protection late Wednesday, Dec. 10, listing up to $17.2 million in liabilities.
Howard’s was based in La Habra for years before consolidating operations in 2024 to a new headquarters at 111 N. Baldwin Park Blvd., in the City of Industry. It was acquired in April by S5 Equity, a private equity firm based in Newport Beach, to help with the cash-starved company’s turnaround.
Lawyers for the company filed plans for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles. In Chapter 11, the company continues to operate under the supervision of a court-appointed trustee, with the goal of emerging from bankruptcy as a viable business.
Details are still scant on how customers can recover payments on appliance orders, especially during the chain’s Black Friday sale after the Thanksgiving holiday. Many customers have frantically tried to either get their appliances — delivered or picked up at a store — or get reimbursed for payments made as long ago as October.
Howard’s bankruptcy filing estimated company assets between $1 million and $10 million, and total property in the amount of $11.5 million. It also had $273,500 in unpaid taxes with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration.
Company officials declined to comment on the bankruptcy filing, though the law firm Golden Goodrich in Costa Mesa told the Southern California News Group on Monday that Howard’s struggled to “overcome tariffs, declines in consumer spending, and other macroeconomic challenges.”
President Donald Trump has made his battle over tariffs with foreign nations a major administration policy to raise revenue for the country and revitalize the economy and create jobs domestically.
Several appliance makers were listed among the 20 largest unsecured claims for “trade debt,” which is money a business owes to its suppliers for goods or services bought on credit.
These included GE Appliances Retail of Louisville, owed $1.42 million, LG Appliances of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, owed $1.13 million, Electrolux Home Products of Carol Stream, Illinois, owed $894,400, R&B Wholesale Distributors of Ontario (an appliance service center), owed $431,200, Thermador of Irvine, owed $274,700, Samsung Electronics of Los Angeles, owed $239,600, and Viking Range LLC of Chicago, owed $118,300.
The Los Angeles Angels baseball team, local television stations FOX 11 (KTTV) and KTLA 5, and Google are owed $150,000, $562,500, $138,600 and $117,000, respectively, for advertising services.
Top Staffing Solutions of La Mirada is owed $203,800 for employee search services.
The company began in 1946 as a radio repair shop in San Gabriel and later evolved into one of Southern California’s leading independent appliance retailers, expanding into televisions and mattresses.
A week after Black Friday sales, the chain suddenly closed all of its Southern California stores, offering only two days’ notice to employees on Dec. 4, and nothing to customers with orders in limbo. A week ago, roughly 100 employees were notified of their pending layoffs during a Zoom video conference call and told business operations would cease Saturday, Dec. 6.
Last supper
About a third of the company’s employees on Wednesday afternoon gathered at Koobikland, a Persian restaurant in Orange.
“We were just saying our goodbyes. We had no opportunity before. We were told about our layoffs on a Zoom call and given 15 minutes to say goodbye to everyone,” said Adam Kohan, a deputy general manager for retail and trade partner with the Howard’s in Laguna Hills. “One hour later, we were closed.”
“This was our Christmas gift to us. It cuts deep to me. Maybe we weren’t treated right, but we have to treat ourselves with dignity,” he said of the restaurant gathering.
Howard’s, whose website went down beginning Friday, operated at least 17 stores before it was acquired. That store count was down to eight as of last week with locations in Tustin, Huntington Beach, La Habra, Laguna Hills, Long Beach (Marina Pacifica neighborhood along Pacific Coast Highway), Alhambra, Covina and Riverside.
S5 Equity, an investment firm led by the Steinhafel family, made its first acquisition in 2022, when it partnered with Prelude Wine Holdings to buy Wiens Cellars in Temecula. In March 2025, it bought Minnesota-based Heartland America, a discount catalog and online retailer for consumers seeking to buy electronics, houseware and apparel.
The Steinhafel family has connections with Steinhafels Furniture in Wisconsin, as well as Gregg Steinhafel, who resigned as president and chief executive officer of Minnesota-based Target Corp. in 2014 following a data breach that exposed 40 million credit and debit card accounts.
S5 Equity is led by managing partner and founder David Steinhafel, the sole shareholder of H Retail Holdings LLC, which runs Howard’s.
(Courtesy of Adam Kohan’s LinkedIn website)