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Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 18th, 2019, 11:03 am
by wnetmacman
My title says it all, and I'm sure it isn't a surprise.

Shopko to liquidate

Looks like they couldn't turn it around or sell it.

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 18th, 2019, 12:02 pm
by Super S
Its too bad they couldn't turn things around, but they have clearly struggled for a while.

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 18th, 2019, 12:19 pm
by Andrew T.
*sigh*

Well, they outlasted their old rival Prange Way by 23 years.

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 18th, 2019, 6:35 pm
by rwsandiego
Gee, another company that was run into the ground by too far-gone to be saved by private equity.

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 18th, 2019, 7:54 pm
by storewanderer
I'm not surprised. That group of go forward stores made zero sense. It was clearly an attempt at a certain regional cluster and not necessarily their best stores. Plus how do you keep doing private labels, etc. for such a small chain?

Well, Shopko made it a long time.

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 19th, 2019, 7:03 am
by pseudo3d
By the time we're done with all of this, the only "Class of 1962" stores left will be Target and Walmart....

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 19th, 2019, 9:15 am
by SamSpade
Via Minnesota Public Radio:
David Livingston, a longtime Midwestern retail analyst, said the chain's demise is no surprise.

"They weren't able to offer anything compelling compared to Walmart, Target, Amazon," Livingston said. He said it was another of the concerns added to a retail shakeout hitting businesses big and small.

He also noted creditors have also challenged more than $100 million in dividends paid to equity owners in recent years, reportedly paid with borrowed money. Livingston said he believed management hadn't been seriously interested in emerging from bankruptcy.
(emphasis mine)

In case anyone was wondering which liquidator is trying this time:
Shopko has hired Gordon Brothers to liquidate its stores

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 20th, 2019, 9:26 am
by Super S
pseudo3d wrote: March 19th, 2019, 7:03 am By the time we're done with all of this, the only "Class of 1962" stores left will be Target and Walmart....
Well, Kmart is not dead yet.

It is worth noting though that Shopko held on just a little longer than Kmart did in some areas such as Boise, Yakima, Lacey, and Salem. Shopko at least made an effort to keep most of these stores up to date (although that Lacey store sure looks tired, it did look more modern than a typical Kmart at least)

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: March 20th, 2019, 6:56 pm
by storewanderer
Shopko operated on lower volumes for years. They gave up the fight on the consumables business in the 90's and tried to shift to the higher margin non-consumable type categories. They seemed to go back and forth thinking about focusing more on consumables from time to time but it was always a half hearted effort at best.

With that said, they did some good things. Adding in branded athletic shoes like Nike, Adidas, New Balance, etc. was a good move to compliment the "Payless" section they had elsewhere in their stores. They always put out good looking seasonal sets. Overall their stores always felt higher priced and seemed to have a strangely high number of out of stocks for how low volume they were (this is how it was for the past 15+ years).

Moving their higher priced format into smaller towns via Pamida was the wrong move. Those small towns are after a Dollar General type store with dirt cheap consumables sold in a filthy environment. Not a store that is clean and orderly with higher priced non foods and limited high priced consumables.

Re: Shopko to liquidate

Posted: April 8th, 2019, 11:14 pm
by SamSpade
Shopko Foundation makes its final donations:
https://youtu.be/tMvI9rCnS_0