After filing Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in June, Hastings Entertainment will close all of its stores by October 31, 2016. The company operates several stores in the Kansas City metro area, including Lawrence and Manhattan in Kansas and St. Joseph and Warrensburg in Missouri.
According to court documents, bidding on the company ended July 20 in a Delaware bankruptcy court. Two financial companies bought Hastings Entertainment in a joint venture to oversee the liquidation of all stores.
Court documents show that the stores will be liquidated using a “store closing,” “sale on everything,” “going out of business” sale.
The stores may close at any time after they have given employees a seven-day notice.
The company’s debts include $80 million in secured loans and $59 million in trade bills.
The company posted a letter on its website last month stating that some of its programs would be ending, which included buy backs and gift cards. Stores have also stopped accepting and honoring customer deposits for future movie purchases and suspended all rentals.
The official statement from Hastings President and CEO Jim Litwak:
Five weeks ago, Hastings filed for Chapter 11 protection with the goal of expediting our search for a buyer that would help us complete our remerchandising strategy and position our business for long-term success.
At the completion of the sale process yesterday, the winning buyer was a joint venture that will instead oversee a liquidation of our stores to ensure we are maximizing the value of all of our remaining merchandise and assets as we prepare to close. All Hastings stores, our e-Commerce business and our corporate office will all discontinue operations at the end of this process.
On Friday, July 22, the Bankruptcy Court is expected to approve our agreement with the companies who will oversee our store closing sales, Hilco Merchant Resources LLC and Gordon Brothers Retail Partners LLC.
We thank our customers and employees for their loyalty over the years, and we hope to see our customers at store closing sales.