May 12 appears it will be the last day for the Shopko store at 4801 Washington Ave. A spokesperson for the retailer, now in bankruptcy, said: “Through our conversations with the potential buyers, it has become clear that it is in our best interest to operate with a significantly smaller store footprint.
“Today we are announcing the closure of an additional 139 Shopko and Shopko Hometown stores. Further, we will relocate approximately 50 optical centers in closing stores to new freestanding locations.”
The Shopko store at 5300 52nd Street in Kenosha is also slated to close on May 12.
The company statement continued: “Due to these impacts, we have issued a (closing warning notice for stores in Wisconsin and Illinois) affected by these difficult, but necessary decisions. While we have not made any decisions about what positions will be affected, we do know that it will result in a reduction of staff.
“We remain hopeful that we will be able to emerge as a stronger company, and we believe that this is the best course of action to make ourselves more attractive to potential buyers and successfully emerge from Chapter 11.”
In bankruptcy, Shopko reported assets of less than $1 billion and liabilities of between $1 billion and $10 billion.
Shopko announced plans to continue operating through Chapter 11 reorganization after securing $480 million in financing from a group of lenders led by Wells Fargo Bank. The financing was designed to enable Shopko to continue to pay employees, vendors and suppliers.