HOUSTON – Employees of Al’s Formal Wear said they were informed Saturday that they were out of jobs during a Microsoft Teams meeting.
An employee reached out to KPRC 2 saying that they were all instructed to hop on an emergency Teams meeting and told that all of the stores would be closed, effective immediately. They said managers were told to notify as many customers as possible to have them to pick up any orders that were ready.
The employees were also reportedly told to remove their personal belongings from the stores.
Employees said, on Monday, they received an email from Dapper & Dashing, the parent company of Al’s Formal Wear, confirming they were being laid off, and the stores would not re-open.
They employees told KPRC 2 they have already been locked out of the company email and computer system.
A letter that read, “Sorry, we are closed today. We apologize for any inconvenience,” was placed outside Al’s Formal Wear in Willowbrook, according to Sidney Mitchell.
“I called them about three times yesterday to make sure and while I was in this area I just stopped by,” Mitchell said.
He tried returning his suit at a different location and on Monday and learned the business closed without giving any notice.
“Well, it’s kind of frustrating because they told me to turn the suit back in on Sunday. My daughter got married on Saturday and I picked it up Friday. They told me to drop it off Sunday so when I took it back to the Woodlands location, it had a sign on the door like this here,” Mitchell said.
The same sign was posted at the Sugar Land location. It goes on to say customers returning tuxedos from this weekend will not be charged and you can keep the suit.
“I was confused by their wording,” one customer told KPRC 2.
“It’s ridiculous. Why would you put us - the brides, the groomsman and everybody - in this kind of predicament without telling anybody anything. That is so rude. It’s horrible customer service,” Erin Bauer said.
Bauer is getting married next month and found out about the closing on Facebook. Her fiancé and some of their bridal party ordered suits earlier this year.
“We got so many suits from them and now we can’t even use them, so we are just out of luck. We are scrambling to try and find suits. We don’t know where to go so we’re in a predicament right now,” she said.
The company had 26 stores in Texas, with at least 10 Al’s Formal Wear locations in the Houston area.
KPRC 2 has reached out to Dapper & Dashing for comment.