Will Mervyns Close?

I stopped by the Torrance store across from Del Amo. The Torrance store still had mostly stocked shelves. Customer traffic appeared normal for early afternoon on a Monday.

Here's part of an AP story:

Mervyns LLC, the Hayward-based discount department store chain, could be the latest casualty of the fiercely competitive retail climate.

The privately held company, which operates about 175 stores in seven states but primarily in California, is facing bare shelves and a cash crunch as vendors are delaying shipments and key lenders that provide finance and credit to apparel makers have stopped approving orders.

"We are advising clients to hold off shipments primarily due to lack of communications from management," said Bob Carbonell, chief credit officer at Bernard Sands LLC, a credit monitoring company.

Carbonell, who said he's working with several dozen clients that sell to the chain, noted that Mervyns had been consistently providing financial updates until about a week ago.
A person close to the company who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue said GMAC Commercial Finance stopped approving orders of merchandise last week.

The South Bay has two Mervyns stores. The Torrance location is at 22015 Hawthorne Blvd., across the street from Del Amo Fashion Center. A store in Redondo Beach helps anchor the South Bay Galleria, at 1799 Hawthorne Blvd.