Shopko begins liquidation sales

Retail general-merchandise chain Shopko, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January, said it will begin liquidation sales in its remaining 120 stores nationwide.

The retailer, which had been unable to find a buyer, had said when it filed it would close 250 other locations.

The chain has begun 'an orderly wind-down” of operations this week, according to Reuters.

The Ashwaubenon, Wis.-based privately held retailer, Specialty Retail Shops Holding Corp. doing business as Shopko, expects to have closed all its stores by mid-June.

Specialty Retail operates a dozen stores in Iowa, according to its bankruptcy filing, with three in Eastern Iowa - in Dubuque, Dyersville and Waukon.

'This is not the outcome that we had hoped for when we started our restructuring efforts,” CEO Russ Steinhorst said in a news release earlier this week.

The chain's remaining stores employ some 5,000 workers, according to reports.

Its first store opened in 1962 in Green Bay, Wis.