ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – A long-standing Ashwaubenon-based retailer added 38 stores to its list of closures.
Shopko is filing for bankruptcy, and the announcement is a pretty big deal of both employees and customers in the area.
Especially for the thousands of people who will be left with no job.
The company is even deciding to close its original location on Military Avenue.
For more than 50 years Shopko has been a staple in the Green Bay area.
“The original location opened in 62 and it’s our hometown and starts here in our area and exploded to other areas,” explains Lisa Kaine.
Kaine is a curator at the Neville Museum and tells FOX the retailer has impacted plenty of small towns within the state.
But with the company announcing the closures around Northeast Wisconsin, there’s a lot of uncertainty about its future.
“Obviously it will affect our economy, workforce. That happens when any major retailer closes down and the community has to adapt.”
Jim Golembeski, an executive director for the Green Bay Area Workforce Development Board, tells FOX 11 the rising popularity of online shopping is part of the cause.
“Some of this is how business evolves and changes. Some of this is that the retail sector there’s a real earthquake happening with Amazon and Google and people being able to shop online.”
Golembeski says closing these stores will leave many people without out jobs, but luckily there are more than 500 open positions at other area retailers.
“I never want to disregard the fact that it’s traumatic to lose a job at a place where you have familiarity, and you have friends and know your customers.”
All of the Shopko stores closing in Northeast Wisconsin will close for good in April.
