J.J. NEWBERRY STORE TO CLOSE IN CANYON COUNTRY.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer The sign went up Wednesday, signaling the end of another slice of Americana, a throwback throwback see atavism. to a simpler time. The J.J. Newberry J.J. Newberry's was an American five and dime store chain in the twentieth century. It was founded in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, USA in 1911 by John Josiah Newberry (September 26, 1877 - March 6, 1954). J.J. Newberry had learned the variety store business by working at S.H. store on Soledad Canyon Soledad Canyon is a long narrow canyon / valley located in Los Angeles County, California between the cities of Palmdale and Santa Clarita. Soledad Canyon contains the localities of Vincent, Acton, Ravenna, and Agua Dulce. Road will soon be closed forever. A liquidation company has come in to slash prices on the merchandise at the 10,000-square-foot store. Bargains abound at the five-and-dime. The store is one of 300 in the nationwide chain, owned by Pennsylvania-based McCrory Corp., that will close. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 1992, and has been trying to pay back its creditors ever since, said Paul Weiner, McCrory's chief financial officer. The store closures and liquidations should provide the company with $45 million to $50 million, enough to retire the debt, Weiner said. That was scant consolation to Wes Lee, manager of the J.J. Newberry at 19150 Soledad Canyon Road. ``All I know is I'm closing and I'll be out of a job,'' Lee said. ``I've been with the company for 35 years.'' Newberry moved to its current storefront after its previous location - in the same shopping plaza shopping plaza Noun a shopping centre, usually a small group of stores built as a strip , near Whites Canyon Road - was destroyed in the Northridge Earthquake The Northridge earthquake occurred on January 17, 1994 at 4:31 AM Pacific Standard Time in the city of Los Angeles, California. The earthquake had a "strong" moment magnitude of 6. , Lee said. Corporate headquarters in York, Pa., hasn't told employees when the store will be locked for good. ``They haven't given me a closing date. We put our signs up (Wednesday) that we're going out of business,'' Lee said. Weiner said the situation is the same at all of the stores hit by the liquidation, which began this month. All 300 stores should be shuttered by April, he said. By far the most closures are taking place in California. Among the 39 on the liquidation list are stores in Carson, Lynwood, Long Beach, Pomona, San Pedro, Garden Grove Garden Grove, city (1990 pop. 143,050), Orange co., S Calif., a suburb of Long Beach and Los Angeles, on the Santa Ana River; founded 1877, inc. 1956. Many of its residents work in nearby aerospace and defense installations, and there is light manufacturing. and four sites in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , Weiner said. The eight California stores that will remain open are all up north, including locations in Santa Rosa Santa Rosa, city, Argentina Santa Rosa, city (1991 pop. 80,629), capital of La Pampa prov., central Argentina. It is a modern city and road junction surrounded by a rich agricultural and cattle-raising area. , Berkeley and San Jose, Weiner said. Overall, McCrory has 460 stores in about three dozen states. Besides J.J. Newberry, the chain also operates stores under the names Kress, T.G.&Y., McLellan, Silvers, G.C. Murphy, Coast to Coast, H.L. Green and WM Tally House. McCrory has owned the J.J. Newberry chain since 1972, Weiner said. He wouldn't specify how the chain chose which stores to close and which to retain. Some might have had poor sales, others were too far from Pennsylvania to make the shipments of merchandise cost-effective to the overall chain, Weiner said. At other sites, competition from large retailers - particularly Target and Wal-Mart - may have hastened the demise of J.J. Newberry. ``You won't find the root causes. It's just the retail environment,'' Weiner said. ``Communities change. There are any number of things that affect the profitability of stores (including) competition. There are more retailers today.'' In January, McCrory Corp. officials sought permission from a New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. bankruptcy court bankruptcy court n. the specialized Federal court in which bankruptcy matters under the Federal Bankruptcy Act are conducted. There are several bankruptcy courts in each state, and each one's territory covers several counties. to close two-thirds of its stores. J.J. Newberry was founded in 1911 by a Pennsylvania native. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (color) J.J. Newberry's liquidation sale is drawing shoppers for one final round of deals at the Soledad Canyon Road store. John Lazar/Special to the Daily News |
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