December 13, 2018 600 AM
PRESIDIO – Come February 2019, Shopko employees in Presidio will be out of work following the announcement that the store is one of 39 the company is closing in the next few months nationwide.
Other Shopko stores in the region, including the Alpine, Kermit, and Monahans stores, will remain open.
According to a company spokesperson, the stores being shuttered began liquidation on December 7 and will close by the end of February.
The store closures were determined after Shopko’s parent firm, Sun Capital Partners Inc., sought but failed to find a buyer for its subsidiary earlier this year.
“Efforts by Shopko Stores to find a buyer [stalled] and the Midwestern retailer is making preparations for a bankruptcy filing,” according to a Bloomberg report.
This will be the second time in five years a “small box” store will be closing in Presidio. The former retailer Alco constructed the building that Shopko now occupies but closed its doors in October 2014 after also filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
According to a Shopko spokesperson, “Hometown stores [like Presidio] employ somewhere between 10-25 full and part-time teammates who Shopko will assist in transferring to open positions at other locations, or provide severance benefits.”
With the closest Shopko location almost 90 miles away in Alpine, it’s unclear whether there are any job openings there for Presidio employees or how many would choose severance.
