Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus, already drowning in debt before the coronavirus pandemic, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday in Texas. The 113-year-old department store chain was struggling to pay $5 billion in debt before the pandemic exacerbated its financial difficulties, forcing it to close its 43 stores across the country. “We had a business that was on track prior to COVID-19,”  Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck told The Wall Street Journal. “Everything was going well in our transformation, but we had massive interest payments. COVID threw everything off track. This is an opportunity to reset our financial structure.” Under the bankruptcy filing, which will help the retailer eradicate $4 billion in debt, its creditors will become majority owners of the retailer.