KAILUA-KONA— It remains to be seen how the Kailua-Kona Sports Authority will be impacted by reports that the business could be shutting down most, if not all, of its stores.
KAILUA-KONA— It remains to be seen how the Kailua-Kona Sports Authority will be impacted by reports that the business could be shutting down most, if not all, of its stores.
“It’s just business as usual for us,” Kailua-Kona store manager Alvin Tayo said on Monday.
The original call for closures several months ago included 140 stores and two distribution centers, but the eight stores in Hawaii weren’t affected.
But the company recently told the bankruptcy court they could not reach an agreement with their creditors and lenders and are proceeding on selling some or all of the business, according to reports. Experts say it’s now likely that the large majority, if not all, of the chain’s stores will go away in relatively short order.
“It’s a well-known brand. It’s on the top of stadiums. But it’s safe to say there’s a tarnish on the brand now,” Larry Perkins of SierraConstellation Partners, an expert in retail reorganizations, told CNN Money.
Perkins said if someone buys Sports Authority with the intention of keeping the chain operating under that name it will likely be in limited to parts of the country with little competition, where competitors are not established.
The company had 14,500 full- and part-time employees at the time of its bankruptcy filing. When the company was bought by a hedge fund 10 years ago, it was the nation’s largest sporting goods retailer, CNN Money reported.
While business was operating as usual in Kailua-Kona on Monday, Tayo referred questions to the corporate office, which didn’t return messages Monday.
“An important guideline with gift cards is to use them as soon as you can, because if a store closes or goes bankrupt, there may be little to no recourse for a consumer to recover an unspent balance,” wrote Stephen Levins, executive director of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affair’s Office of Consumer Protection in a release. “If you currently have a Sports Authority gift card, you should use it immediately to avoid losing whatever credit it contains.”