Greybull Shopko among 39 stores closing

GREYBULL — Shopko announced this week that it would be closing 39 stores in 19 states.

Shopko Public Relations Manager Michelle Hansen said there will still be more than 300 Shopko stores open throughout the country, including the one in Worland. According to the Shopko website, there are 13 Shopko stores in Wyoming. The Greybull store is the only store in Wyoming scheduled to close. This leaves stores in Worland, Thermopolis, Powell, Afton, Buffalo, Douglas, Green River, Lander, Mountain View, Newcastle, Torrington and Wheatland.

According to a prepared statement released by Shopko, “Shopko deeply values its employees and the communities it serves. It is never an easy decision to close a location and Shopko thanks its employees for all their support and hard work as well as its customers. 

“Despite all of the stores’ efforts, as we reviewed the long-term outlook on profitability, sales trends, and potential growth we came to the difficult decision that it was necessary to close these stores.”

The release also stated that Shopko will assist those who are interested in transferring to open positions at other locations, or will provide severance benefits according to the company’s guidelines.

The Greybull Shopko has 12 employees, plus additional employees in the pharmacy.

The Greybull location opened in October 2012. The Greybull Shopko housed the community’s only pharmacy store.

“The most important part that we need to be concerned about is keeping our pharmacy here in town,” Greybull Mayor Myles Foley said. He said as soon as he heard about the closing he contacted building owner Ron Fiene. “We’re getting things worked out, I believe, so that the pharmacy will stay in town. We’re hoping it will be in the building that it is at right now. I think something will be worked out.” He said there was a lot of work done to secure the pharmacy in the Shopko building so it would be good to be able to locate a new pharmacy there.

Foley added, “I’m sad to see a retailer leaving. I’m actually kind of surprised but I do feel something else will fill in that building quickly, because Greybull is doing quite well as far as new businesses and existing business.”

Liquidation of all 39 stores begins today with closing scheduled at the end of

February, according to Shopko Public Relations Manager Michelle Hansen.

ABOUT SHOPKO

Shopko is owned by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, Inc., a leading private investment firm focused on leverage buyouts, equity, debt, and other investments in market-leading companies. 

Founded in 1962 and headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Shopko Stores Operating Co., LLC is a $3 billion retailer that operates more than 370 stores in 26 states throughout the Central, Western and Pacific Northwest regions. Retail formats include 126 Shopko stores, providing quality name-brand merchandise, great values, pharmacy and optical services in small to mid-sized cities; five Shopko Express Rx stores, a convenient neighborhood drugstore concept; 6 Shopko Pharmacy locations; two Shopko Optical locations and 234 Shopko Hometown stores, a smaller concept store developed to meet the needs of smaller communities.