Mervyns to quit Spokane
Mervyns LLC has announced that all of its 13 stores in Washington, including its store at NorthTown Mall in Spokane, will close by February 2007.
The struggling retailer based in Hayward, Calif., also will close seven stores in Oregon and Utah in an effort to improve its profits.
The closure of Mervyns next year will result in the loss of about 65 jobs in the Spokane store, most of which are part-time positions, said Mervyns spokeswoman Leanne Furman. Altogether, the closures will affect more than 1,400 positions.
Leslea Warnick, marketing director at NorthTown Mall, said the shopping center wasn’t surprised by Mervyns’ decision.
“We were aware they were closing stores,” following the company’s announcement last fall that it would shut down 62 stores in eight states, Warnick said. That process is expected to be completed by next month.
As for the latest announcement, “It’s too soon to determine what kind of impact it will have, if any, on NorthTown,” she added. “We are looking at our options at this time.” Mervyns opened its NorthTown store in 1991.
Brusan Wells, development director at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Inland Northwest, also said she’d heard rumblings about Mervyns’ future, but said the chain’s closure here is a blow to her organization. For the past seven years Mervyns has teamed up with Big Brothers Big Sisters to provide new school clothes to underprivileged children.
Mervyns “will be greatly missed by 700 kids,” Wells said, referring to the estimated number of local children who’ve taken part in the program, called ChildSpree.
Through ChildSpree, Mervyns provides $100 gift cards to the kids, then opens its store early and offers discounts on its merchandise, Wells said. The program is offered throughout the Mervyns chain in conjunction with a variety of nonprofits and elementary schools, according to the company’s Web site.
Furman said Mervyns will offer ChildSpree one last time here, this summer. Wells said she hopes another retailer will take over the program locally.
Mervyns’ store in Bellingham is scheduled to close at the end of March and the others in Washington — nine in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett area and one each in Silverdale, Vancouver and Spokane — will shut down in about a year.
Also being closed are six stores in Oregon and one in Salt Lake City as Mervyns concentrates its investments on existing and new stores in more profitable markets in the West and Southwest, the company said.
“Exiting the underperforming markets of Oregon and Washington will allow us to make investments that better serve our customers and Mervyns’ future,” said Vanessa Castagna, executive chairwoman of Mervyns’ board. “We are confident that these decisions are right for Mervyns’ future growth and success, and are consistent with the strategy that we announced in September 2005.”
Mervyns has been steadily losing market share to more nimble competitors for years. Frustrated with the chain’s meager returns, Target Corp. sold Mervyns last year for $1.65 billion to a group of investors that includes Sun Capital Partners, Inc., Cerberus Capital Management LP and Lubert-Adler and Klaff Partners LP.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.