Value City closes six stores, lays off dozens

By Don Shilling

A spokeswoman said the company has no plans to close all the stores.

Value City stores in Boardman and Alliance have survived another round of store closings, but a news report questions whether the chain itself can survive.

The Columbus-based department store chain announced this week that six stores would be closed but none in Ohio. The chain has about 30 stores that will remain open.

Kristin Mack, a Value City spokeswoman, said the stores were being closed because of low sales. The stores are in Indianapolis, Maryland, Michigan, Georgia and Missouri.

Sources have told The Columbus Dispatch, however, that company warehouses are being emptied for liquidation sales that could end in all stores being closed no later than January.

Mack told the newspaper that there are no plans to close all the stores. “That could change tomorrow. The economy is in such turmoil that things are changing all the time,” she said.

The company is running ads in The Vindicator that advertise a sale in which all sales are final. Mack said those ads have nothing to do with a store closing.

The Dispatch reported that dozens of workers were laid off from Value City’s corporate headquarters, and suppliers are saying they are owed money.

A holding company called VCHI Acquisition Co. took over operations of Value City 10 months ago. The chain was spun off from Retail Ventures, which retains a 19 percent ownership stake.

At the time, the holding company said the Boardman and Alliance stores would be among a group that would be closed. It later changed those plans, however, and kept the two stores open. The chain closed 27 stores last spring.

The department store is not connected to Value City Furniture, which is under different ownership.

shilling@vindy.com