Liquidator Plans Sale At Smith’s Local Stores To Reopen Briefly To Sell Remaining Inventory

The two Spokane Smith’s Home Furnishings stores will temporarily reopen Thursday at 9:30 a.m., but not under the management of the bankrupt Portland company.

Maynards Industries, a Vancouver, B.C.-based auction and liquidation company, will sell all remaining furniture stock from the stores.

The company bought Smith’s Washington furniture inventories on Sept. 26. That purchase was part of a liquidation plan approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Oregon, Smith’s attorney Tony Summers said last week. The more than $2.8 million Maynards paid for the merchandise will go toward paying off Smith’s debt to its secured creditors.

All items will be sold to consumers for 30 percent to 50 percent of the original Smith’s price, said Maynards spokeswoman Diana MacLean. The items include couches, chairs, lamps, tables, art, bedding and dinette sets.

The sale is scheduled to continue daily through Oct. 21 at the latest. MacLean said she doubts the inventory will last that long.

Maynards hired many of Smith’s former Spokane employees to work at the sale. MacLean estimates 50 to 60 employees, maybe more, will work at both the Northpointe Plaza and N. 212 Sullivan Road stores combined.

“We’d like to emphasize that it’s Maynards (not Smith’s). We’re a reputable company, and as many employees as were willing and wanting to work, we hired them.”

More than 80 people lost their jobs due to the closings of the Spokane stores.

Jami Cramer had worked at the Valley location since it opened in 1994, and is happy to return to work.

“For a temporary job, it was nice,” Cramer said. “A lot of people don’t have jobs yet.”

Cramer worries, though, about former Smith’s customers who are upset because they lost money paid in advance for merchandise or extended warranties. She and MacLean said someone even put four bullet holes in the Northpointe Smith’s.

“The sale should not be a time to voice complaints to employees,” Cramer said. She said she no longer works for Smith’s, and even had to fill out a claim with the bankruptcy court herself.

“Our first paycheck we received after the bankruptcy, we only got paid 67 percent of our wages.” she said. Many former Smith’s employees also purchased merchandise there with extended warranties.

Employees lost as well, Cramer said. But she understands why Smith’s customers are upset.

“Try convincing someone their $500 isn’t as important as my job,” she said.

, DataTimes