(Alive To Die?!) Shopko The Complete Story - S05E06

Shopko was a chain of department stores based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. All locations closed on June 23, 2019, with the exception of the Shopko Optical locations, which continue to operate.

The company was founded in 1962 by James Ruben as ShopKo Corporation. It opened its first store in 1962 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

From 1991 to 2005, the company was publicly held, with stock traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SKO. In December 2005, the company was acquired by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners and reverted to private ownership. Starting that year, it opened a number of smaller stores named ShopKo Express. In June 2007, the company changed its name to Shopko Stores Inc.

In 1999, Shopko purchased Pamida, a regional discount chain that operated mainly in smaller communities of 3,000 to 8,000 people. Shopko operated Pamida as a separate division until 2007, when Pamida was separated from Shopko and reestablished as a separate company. In 2012, Shopko and Pamida merged into one company. Shortly after, most Pamida stores were rebranded as Shopko Hometown.

Shopko filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 16, 2019. On March 18, 2019, Shopko announced it would close all of its stores by summer 2019. All stores closed on June 23, 2019.

#deparmentstore #nostalgia #retail

[jimmenzel]

…on 1/10/24 Stevens Point WI City Board tells its community its Redevelopment Plan of Downtown will include the demolition of its Shopko building. The City was unable to tell the people how long the redevelopment would take, how much it would cost or when the destruction would begin.

[TheRealMrAndrew]

Buying Pimida crippled Shopko. They lost a lot of their store level top talent because they had no money to build new locations.