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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hastings to close all its locations this fall

Jake Linton, of Kettle Falls, Wash., came looking to trade movies and buy music, July 21, 2016, at the Hastings on Wellesley Avenue in Spokane. Linton, a customer for the past 20 years, found for purchase a pair of CDs each by Sarah McLachlan and Roy Orbison, in addition to a John Anderson CD. Hastings Entertainment, a 123-store music and book store chain, will close all its locations this fall. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
From staff reports

Jake Linton, of Kettle Falls, Washington, stopped Thursday at the Hastings Entertainment store in north Spokane to see if he could sell back a couple of used movie DVDs.

But he was met by a sign on the door saying all rentals and buy-backs were discontinued on June 14 following a bankruptcy filing by the parent company last month.

Now, word comes from Amarillo, Texas, that all 123 locations of the music, book and movie retailer will close this fall.

“It will push me online,” said Linton, a regular Hastings customer.

He said Hastings was one of his favorite stops in Spokane because it satisfied his passion for music and movies.

“You can be sad about it, or you can say that’s progress,” he said.

Online media is “the better business model now,” he said.

Inside the store at Wellesley Avenue and Ash Street, one of the checkout clerks said of the impending closure, “This is not the result we were hoping for.”

Customers were asking about it, she said. She declined to give her name, but said she expects to be laid off with Thursday’s news.

“I will miss it,” she said of the store. “I kind of grew up in this store.”

Local store managers were not available for comment.

A sale to two corporations that plan to liquidate Hastings was approved Wednesday, according to the Amarillo Globe-News.

The chain includes stores in north Spokane, the South Hill, Spokane Valley and Coeur d’Alene.

Other Washington and Idaho locations are Moses Lake, Richland, Wenatchee, Moscow, Lewiston, Nampa, Idaho Falls, Meridian and three stores in Boise.

The stores will close by Oct. 31.