Mervyns to close stores

As part of the chain's bankruptcy reorganization, 26 of 176 stores will shut down by late October or early November - 11 of them in California. That includes locations in Canoga Park, Thousand Oaks, Foothill Ranch, Huntington Beach, Irvine, and Laguna Niguel. All told, 2,300 to 3,100 employees work at the stores being closed. This could just be the beginning; Mervyns hasn't laid out its plans, but the chain is likely to take another look at its locations after the first of the year. From the San Jose Mercury:

"That is standard operating procedure in these deals," said Stevan Buxbaum, executive vice president with Buxbaum Group, an Agoura Hills-based retail inventory appraiser and liquidator. "When they are trying to reorganize, they try to determine which are their unprofitable stores and pick them for closing." More stores could close after the upcoming back-to-school, Halloween and Christmas shopping season. "They will want to go through Christmas, then look and see if they have to close another group of stores to make things more efficient," Buxbaum said.