SOLANA BEACH, CA — Customers walking up to the door of the Pirch showroom in Solana Beach were not greeted by employees on Thursday afternoon.
Instead, two notices were taped to the window.
The first notice warned customers, "Our Store is currently closed for normal operations."
The second notice was from the building's landlord. The letter issued on Wednesday notified Pirch, Inc. that the company is behind on rent for March.
"No one answered the email. No one picked up the phone. The store didn't pick up the phone yesterday," said Nasim Shamsaei, an interior designer.
Shamsaei started hearing reports on Wednesday night that Pirch is unexpectedly closing.
"What bothers us and me as a business owner was we should have been informed, somehow," said Samshaei.
By Thursday afternoon, Pirch issued the following statement on its website:
"As of Wednesday March 20th, PIRCH is temporarily closing all our showrooms through this weekend. This is a pause of business to give management the opportunity to complete a go-forward plan.
We are navigating through various options. We take this situation very seriously and are working diligently to resolve it. We appreciate your patience while we work to find a path forward. We intend to share the go forward plans sometime next week."
Samshaei is now concerned customers who paid Pirch in cash, check, or with a debit card could lose everything they spent without getting products they ordered.
One of Samshaei's clients recently spent roughly $35,000 dollars on Perch merchandise.
"Pay it with your credit cards cause there will be a way to protect yourselves," advised Samshaei.
