Mervyns will close all its 149 department stores with going- out-of-business sales over the holidays, the company announced Friday.
The department store chain, which has three stores in Tucson — in Tucson Mall at 4510 N. Oracle Road, at 5555 E. Broadway and at 3660 S 16th Ave. — filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors in July.
The California-based chain, which opened its first store in San Lorenzo, Calif., in 1949, also has stores in New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Idaho.
Managers at local stores referred calls to a Mervyns corporate spokesman.
Mervyns spokesman Andrew Siegel said he did not know the exact number of employees working at Tucson's three Mervyns store, but most stores have between 80 and 100 workers each.
The Tucson Mervyns were listed together as the area's 193rd largest employer in the 2006 edition of the Star 200, the last time they appeared in the Arizona Daily Star's annual survey of the 200 largest employers in Southern Arizona. The company reported having the equivalent of about 200 full-time employees in 2006 and 2007. Many department store retail sales staff are part-time workers.
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Retail employees led job-loss categories in Arizona's September unemployment figures, released Thursday by the state Department of Commerce. Statewide, the retail sector was down 4,400 jobs from the previous month's seasonally adjusted report.
Siegel said there was no timeline for closing the Tucson stores. "The sale lasts as long as the merchandise does," Siegel said.
The company is in the process of hiring an outside firm to assist in the liquidation, but Siegel said Mervyns employees would be used to staff the stores during the closing sales.
Margie Wright, of Pima County's One-Stop employment centers, said she hadn't heard from Mervyns officials about providing re-employment or other services to the company's soon-to-be-displaced workers.
Some employers are required under the federal WARN Act to notify workers of impending layoffs. But Wright said some employers who are not covered by the act also contact the county employment center to provide services to their workers.
Job Help
Pima County Community Services operates One-Stop employment centers at its Kino Service Center, 2797 E. Ajo Way, and the Rio Nuevo Service Center, 340 N. Commerce Park Loop.
For more information on county employment services visit: www.pima.gov /CED/CS/OneSto
Mervyns info
For information on the Mervyns bankruptcy case: www.kccllc.net/mervyns