Why Did Painted Tree Close? Inside the Shocking Shutdown of 40+ Stores

Shopping at Painted Tree always felt a little like walking into a Pinterest board in real life. The Arkansas-based company built its brand around a boutique marketplace packed with small-business vendors. Painted Tree was not a traditional department store.

The company described itself as “an Etsy marketplace and Pinterest catalog come to life.” It focused on gifts, home decor, and boutique clothing while giving small entrepreneurs a place to sell their products. Painted Tree launched in 2015 as a vintage market in Bryant, Arkansas. It later expanded into a much larger boutique marketplace concept. However, on April 14, Painted Tree told vendors it was ceasing operations and closing all of its stores effective immediately.

Painted Tree vendors were stunned when they learned the company was shutting down more than 42 locations. In a statement to KARE 11, the company said the retail landscape had shifted in ways it could not keep up.

"The retail landscape has changed in ways none of us could have fully anticipated," Painted Tree said. "Rising costs, shifting market conditions, and the evolving nature of how people shop have presented challenges that, despite our best efforts and our community’s unwavering support, we have not been able to overcome. We are heartbroken by this outcome."

Painted Tree was owned by co-founders Corey Gillum and Mike Cavallo. According to Talk Business, the pair operated as 50-50 partners and grew the brand from a single store in 2015 into a multistate operation. Vendors rented spaces inside each store, while Painted Tree handled checkout and other back-end retail tasks.

“They don’t have to worry about accounting. All they have to do is bring the products that they love, set it up, make their space their own, and then let us do the rest,” Mike said. “They’re able to do what they love without actually having to quit their day job, and they can do this as kind of a side hustle, and then some end up doing it full time and have grown to 15, 16, 17 stores with us.”

Painted Tree sold home goods, candles, wall decor, gifts, boutique apparel, and other curated items from individual sellers. Corey told Talk Business that the shopping experience was meant to feel like a treasure hunt, with customers wandering through different vendor spaces. Now, those vendors are speaking out and suggesting that they were left to scramble after receiving the news.

Erin Winkelman, who ran her business inside Painted Tree for two years, described the chaos in an interview with ABC 15. “Everybody's scrambling, hoping that they don't lock the doors,” she said. “A lot of people, this is their retirement plan.”

Vendors were told to retrieve inventory by April 24, with only a skeleton crew left to help. Some vendors also raised concerns about getting paid for April after the sudden closure.

“We have been paid for March, so we are expecting to be paid out for April. Will we? Probably not,” vendor Stefan Gilmore told KLTV. “It will probably be a work of Congress to get our money for this month.”