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Borders is planning liquidation sales in the 200 stores it is shutting down as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.
“There will be opportunities for liquidation-type sales,” Borders spokesman Donald Cutler said Thursday. “Specifications about them will be revealed in the coming days and weeks.” Get the full story »
Gift cards at a Borders bookstore in Washington. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)
A judge late Wednesday granted Borders Group approval on an interim basis to use $400 million of the $505 million in financing it has been offered to pay its vendors back and keep its business going, including honoring its loyalty program and gift cards.
The decision is the start of a lengthy and difficult process for Borders, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday. The No. 2 U.S. bookseller is attempting to successfully reorganize so it can emerge from bankruptcy protection a smaller and profitable company.
Borders is accepting bids in an auction for companies to run its store closings and clearance sales. Get the full story »
ExxonMobil outlets at the Illinois Tollway’s seven oases will be replaced with 7-Eleven stores, the tollway said Thursday.
The Dallas-based convenience store chain will take over maintenance and operations at Mobil fuel stations for the remaining 17 years of a lease agreement. The stations will still be branded Mobil and drivers can use their ExxonMobil credit card at the oases, but the stores will be re-branded 7-Eleven by the end of March. Get the full story »
The Borders at North and Halsted in Chicago will close. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
Borders Group Inc. plans to close almost half of its stores in the Chicago area as part of its proposed Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, according to a Wednesday filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York.
According to the Borders Web site, the bookseller has about 30 stores in Chicago and its suburbs, including a few Indiana locations.
In Chicago, five of eight stores will close, including the one at North Avenue and Halsted Street, as well as those in Lincoln Park, Uptown, Lincoln Village and Beverly. The Hyde Park store is already in the process of closing and will shut its doors on March 7. This means the only Borders superstore left in the city will be in the Loop. A Borders-owned Waldenbooks in Citicorp Center will also remain open. Get the full story »
Electronics retailer H.H. Gregg Inc. said it plans to enter the Chicago market for the first time this fall with 20 stores.
The Indianapolis-based company will open stores in Schaumburg, Niles and Vernon Hills, among other locations, according to spokeswoman Sari Martin.
The fast-growing retailer aims to take advantage of big-box real estate left empty in the wake of the recession, moving into stores once occupied by bankrupt retailers Circuit City, Wickes Furniture and Linens ‘n Things. Get the full story »
A Borders at the corner of Pearson and Michigan Ave. in Chicago, which closed in January of 2011. (Heather Charles/Tribune)
Borders Group Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection and said it planned to close nearly one-third of its bookstores, after years of shriveling sales that made it impossible to manage its crushing debt load.
The long-expected Chapter 11 filing will give the second-largest U.S. bookstore chain a chance to fix its finances and shrink its business at a time when buyers are increasingly going online rather than visiting megastores. The bankruptcy could help larger rival Barnes & Noble Inc, which also is struggling, by reducing the number of competing stores. Get the full story »
Chicagoans like doing their banking at the supermarket.
Nationally, the number of in-store bank branches and the deposits they hold are falling, but those numbers continue to edge up in Chicago, according to a newly released study by trade publication SNL Financial. Get the full story »
Naperville-based OfficeMax Inc. reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit Wednesday as tight cost controls offset weak sales. Get the full story »
Wall Street Journal | ESL Partners, the hedge fund run by Sears Holdings Chairman Edward Lampert, has taken a 5.8 percent stake in Gap Inc., according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Outside the former Carson Pirie Scott building on State Street. (Heather Charles/Chicago Tribune)
Target Corp. announced on Tuesday long-anticipated plans to open a store in Chicago’s Loop.
The store, called City Target, will lease space in the Sullivan Center at 1 S. State St., which has been empty since Carson Pirie Scott closed its flagship department store in 2007.
Target plans to open the store next year. The urban format, smaller than the typical Target store, will offer fresh food, apartment essentials and clothing. It will mark the Minneapolis-based discount chain’s 10th store in Chicago and create about 200 jobs.
Get the full story »
Retailers logged slight increases in store sales last month as consumers focused primarily on paying for groceries and gasoline, the government reported Tuesday.
The Commerce Department said total retail sales rose 0.3 percent last month. Get the full story »
Chicago printing services company R. R. Donnelley said Tuesday that it would team up with mail-order retail giant L.L. Bean to produce a full line of catalogs.
The catalogs include L.L. Bean’s Outdoors/Sporting and Home titles and produce package inserts that ship with ordered products. Get the full story »
Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz USA will take over sales and marketing of the microcar smart USA brand from Penske Automotive Group by the middle of this year, Mercedes-Benz USA and Penske said Monday.
By the end of the transition period around July 1, the number of U.S. Mercedes-Benz dealers selling smart cars will drop to the mid-50sfrom the current 75 at dealerships owned by the Penske group, a Mercedes-Benz spokesman said. Get the full story »
Shoppers on Chicago's Michigan Avenue in December of 2010. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
Clothing prices are expected to rise about 10 percent in coming months, with the biggest increases coming in the second half of the year, said Burt Flickinger III, president of Strategic Resource Group.
Clothing prices have dropped for a decade as tame inflation and cheap overseas labor helped hold down costs. Retailers and clothing makers cut frills and experimented with fabric blends to cut prices during the recession.
But as the world economy recovers and demand for goods rises, a surge in labor and raw materials costs is squeezing retailers and manufacturers who have run out of ways to pare costs. Get the full story »
Roses for sale on FTD's Web site. (Screenshot)
Chicago-based online coupon site Groupon.com and Downers Grove-based flower company FTD Group Inc. are offering refunds after getting complaints that a Valentine’s Day flower deal wasn’t so sweet.
Both companies said they didn’t do anything wrong, but they responded to Internet complaints that FTD inflated prices for some Groupon customers who used a coupon for $20 off an FTD flower purchase of $40 or more.
The problem surfaced when several Groupon customers found the flowers they bought were priced lower as sale items on FTD’s own website. They complained on the Groupon site and the Internet that FTD was making up for the Groupon discount by jacking up the prices. Get the full story »
