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January 3, 2008

KB Toys closing three RI stores

Huge red and yellow signs that read, “Store Closing Sale: 40 % to 60 % off” are plastered on the front windows of the KB Toys store at the Garden City Shopping Center in Cranston, marking the end of the popular store in Rhode Island.

In fact, the other two KB Toys stores in Rhode Island in the Providence Place Mall in Providence and the Narragansett Park Plaza in Rumford are also running close out sales. Store employees said the stores will shut their doors by the end of January. A spokesman at the company’s headquarters in Pittsfield, Mass. did not return phone calls.

Several KB stores in Massachusetts, including locations at the Emerald Square Mall in North Attleboro, the Wrentham Village in Wrentham and the Silver City Galleria in Taunton, will stay open. But the KB store in the Fall River Shopping Center is scheduled to close by the end of January.

In all, KB will close about 120 of its stores, leaving a chain of about 380 locations.

KB Toys is restructuring, and eliminating about 300 jobs, because of fierce competition from the big retailers, such as Wal-Mart, and a troubled financial history. KB emerged from federal bankruprtcy court protection in 2005 and was acquired by a private equity firm.

Posted by John Kostrzewa  at 9:29 AM | Permalink

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