The Kirkland’s home decor store in Vernon Hills will close at the end of December, becoming part of a wave of closures sweeping the chain following its acquisition by Bed Bath & Beyond, according to the Chicago Tribune and Pioneer Press.
Store staff told the newspaper the Vernon Hills location, which opened in 2017, will shut its doors on Dec. 27, staying open through its busiest season. A chalk sign outside the entrance advertises storewide sales, and posters in the window announce that “everything must go.” Employees were slated to be laid off, though staff said they could not say what would happen to the building.
Staff said the location had performed well, but the lease was coming up for renewal and the company appeared to be moving in a new direction. The Vernon Hills store is among numerous locations closing across the country.
The Brand House Collective, formerly Kirkland’s Inc., announced last year that Bed Bath & Beyond would acquire the chain in a transaction the companies valued at an implied equity of approximately $26.8 million. Executive chairman Marcus Lemonis said at the time that the deal would build “a profitable, growth-oriented Everything Home company” while extracting more than $20 million in duplicate costs, according to a company news release cited by the Tribune.
The merger announcement also flagged more than 40 “underperforming or non-strategic stores” for closure in early 2026, which the company described as supporting “bottom line improvement and inventory optimization as an element of the broader efficiency strategy.” Some Kirkland’s locations are being rebranded as Bed Bath & Beyond Home, according to company social media posts, but it is unclear whether the Vernon Hills store had been slated for conversion before its closure was decided.
The Tribune reported that attempts to reach a spokesman for the Brand House Collective were unsuccessful. The closure leaves the Vernon Hills shopping corridor with another vacant retail box at a time when suburban landlords across the Chicago area are already working to backfill stores left by national chains.
Kirkland’s has been part of the suburban Chicago retail landscape for decades, with locations across the area serving a loyal customer base for affordable seasonal decor and home accents. The chain, founded in 1966 in Mississippi, grew to nearly 1,000 stores at its peak before years of shrinking sales narrowed its footprint. The Bed Bath & Beyond acquisition folded the brand into an umbrella company that now spans several home-focused retail banners and has been consolidating back-office operations and store portfolios aggressively.
For shoppers in Vernon Hills, the December closure lands just after the holidays, when the store typically resets for the new year. Store employees, who will be laid off, told the paper they had not been informed of what would happen with the building’s lease. Retail landlords in Lake County have been navigating a wave of such closures as national chains recalibrate their physical footprints, and brokers say spaces vacated by mid-size specialty retailers often sit longer on the market than big-box boxes because of their size.
