Across the city and even the country: retail stores, restaurants, and coffee shops are closing their doors. Two of the most recent closures were sudden with zero heads up to the community, and for one store, the vendors. April 13 2026, Painted Tree Boutiques, a national chain offering a space for local creators to sell their items located at South Point Pavilions and over 60 other locations across the country sent its vendors an email notifying they would be filing for bankruptcy, leaving the vendors 10 days to gather their items. In a similar case, Rock n’ Joe, a coffee bar located in Southeast Lincoln, the Veterans clinic, and several locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that has been a popular place to gather for coffee, baked goods, smoothies, wine, and live music since 2018, closed with their Southeast location with no warning in late March. South Point Mall as a whole suffers from a variety of store closures such as Alumni Hall, a store that sells Husker apparel, White House Black Market, and on the other side of town, Bob and Willie’s Wonderbowl and Joann fabrics. The closure phenomenon is not just local, as bankruptcy is occurring across the country with high operating costs and shifting consumer habits.
Painted Tree’s closure has caused uproar across the country. A business model centered around managing dozens of vendors selling their unique items yet all serviced under one cashier was beneficial for the vendors, yet an unsuccessful financial model. Painted Tree went bankrupt, one vendor was owed $10k+. Bankruptcy is not uncommon but going bankrupt while managing thousands of vendors across the country who are owed money is significantly more harmful than any other bankruptcy and leaves fragile small businesses in an even shakier situation.
Rachel Weigman, the owner of Hello Joy, a boutique selling handmade items such as jewelry and headbands was a vendor at Painted Tree, and remains at the Saturday Farmers Market and craft fairs. Although she is now a hairstylist at Elysian Salon at 84th and Old Cheney, she began giving handmade earrings to clients for Christmas as a hairstylist at Studio Nine Six-11, and started selling from there. Although most of her sales come from the Farmers Market and Roca Merry Farm in December, Painted Tree started as a great beginning, but sales began to decline recently.
“About 7 months ago, they changed the system on how we got paid. That’s where all the chaos started, at least to my knowledge,” Weigman said. “Most vendors were giving them grace because it was new, but after a few months of not getting paid, getting charged multiple times for rent for their space, only getting half of what they’re owed, ect… things really started to go downhill. They weren’t answering emails and corporations weren’t answering their phones. It got pretty bad.”
The process of moving the items out of Painted Tree was difficult and there were few days to retrieve their items.
“Tuesday, we were given 10 days to get our stuff out. Some vendors are in multiple stores which makes that incredibly hard. There were also vendors that were in every store which is 61 stores in 24 different states,” Weighman said. “Overall, most are sad. We put SO many hours and money into planning, creating and restocking. For me, just planning on how I wanted to build my space and make it unique to others took many hours. I handmade my shelves, cut all the boards, bought lots of new fixtures, had an electrician come help with my lights… so much work goes into it and for 1 email to ruin it all, without any warning was/is tough. I had a lot of pride in my booth and I know every vendor in there feels the same. It was very sad walking into The Painted Tree to get all my products and seeing it so empty. The energy wasn’t there like it was before.”
Vendors are in even greater need of local’s support at events such as the Saturday Farmers Market, so a great place to find the vendors at painted tree is at local craft fairs and farmers markets.
“The Painted Tree was a wonderful concept and I had a lot of fun doing it! I met some amazing people and started some friendships that I wouldn’t have otherwise! Come and see me at the Farmers Market most Saturdays starting May 2nd! I’ll be in front of the train playground!“ Weighman said.
Painted Tree is not the only local favorite that shut down without notice. Rock n’ Joe, a local cafe located at 84th and Lindberg closed its doors in late March without notifying anyone. The national cafe began in New Jersey in the 1990s, and moved to Lincoln in 2018. Now, the only Lincoln location is at the Veterans Clinic on 70th Street, while allegedly continuing to run locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The Lindberg location is now labeled as permanently closed – but little information is shown online – no word from Rock n’ Joe on social media, the website, and no local articles written.
For example, after asking the Veterans Clinic location’s barista if he could share any information about Rock n’ Joe’s closure, he states he has “nothing to say” indicating he knows, yet is not allowed to share.
The normalization of sudden closures leaves not only the vendors in Painted Tree’s case, but the community with confusion and in need of explanation of what may be filling in the vacant lots across the city.
“This is not just about one company − it is a structural shift in the retail landscape,” Coresight Research CEO Deborah Weinswig said in a statement to USA TODAY. “As we have noted, retailers that fail to adapt to new consumer expectations and personalized marketing and merchandising are facing an existential crisis.”
The national dilemma of store closures is now hitting locally with a grand effect that Lincoln locals are beginning to recognize.
