Shopko at 1106 S. County Rd., Toledo, Iowa. Chronicle/John Speer

5:54 a.m.- Thursday, Feb. 7: “Through our conversations with the potential buyers, it has become clear that it is in our best interest to operate with a significantly smaller store footprint.

“Yesterday we announced the closure of an additional 139 Shopko and Shopko Hometown stores. Further, we will relocate approximately 50 optical centers in closing stores to new freestanding locations.

“We remain hopeful that we will be able to emerge as a stronger company, and we believe that this is the best course of action to make ourselves more attractive to potential buyers and successfully emerge from Chapter 11.

-Michelle Hansen

Shopko Public Relations

Earlier—The Toledo, Iowa, Shopko Hometown store is now listed among at least 200 Shopko and Shopko Hometown locations which will close this year in an apparent second round of closings. The closing date is listed as May 12, 2019.

No announcement of the shut down has been issued by Shopko. However, a listing of locations now being closed appears on the Shopko website- The Chronicle – News-Herald has asked Shopko public relations for comment.

Last week it was announced Hy-Vee was purchasing the Shopko pharmacy assets in Toledo and five other Shopko locations. that information was provided by Hy-Vee.

On Jan. 16 Shopko announced it had filed for bankruptcy with voluntary petitions for a court-supervised financial restructuring. At that time, it was also announced 11 Iowa Shopkos and a total of 105 company stores throughout the midwest, south and western states would be closed.

The list of stores slated to close can be found at this link: info.shopko.com/closing-locations.pdf?v=3

Shopko took over the Toledo store from Pamida in October, 2012. A merger of the two companies was announced in February of that year.

The store was orignally opened in 1968 as Gibson’s Discount Store.