Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, January 22, 1999
Longs Drug Stores Corp. will close one of its three Mililani stores in mid-February, the first Hawaii closing for the California-based drug and general merchandise business. Longs closing
Mililani storeLongs has 32 stores in Hawaii. The one that is closing is in the Mililani Shopping Center on Kipapa Drive.
Clay Selland, vice president and treasurer at Longs' headquarters in Walnut Creek, Calif., today said the store became a Longs when the company acquired the PayLess stores in 1995. It turned out to be uneconomical.
"That area just doesn't support three stores," Selland said.
The news isn't all bad, he said. Longs will soon open a new store in Ewa and the approximately 40 employees of the closing store will be able to get jobs there. Meanwhile, they will be offered jobs in other stores, he said.
WAIMEA, Hawaii -- Sure Save Super Markets says it will close its Waimea store at the Parker Ranch Shopping Center at the end of the month. Sure Save to close
Waimea marketThe 35,000-square-foot store, opened in 1968 and expanded twice, has 38 employees. They will be allowed to apply for other jobs at Sure Save stores islandwide, company President Carl Okuyama said yesterday.
Okuyama said the cause of the closure was economic.
The store was the only supermarket in the community for decades, but faced competition after the recent opening of a nearby KTA Superstore. Sure Save will continue to operate 11 retail locations on the island, Okuyama said.
DirecTV buying rival Primestar
NEW YORK -- The owner of DirecTV, the nation's biggest satellite television service, is buying its No. 2 rival Primestar Inc., leaving only two major players to compete with cable by beaming TV signals into homes through pizza-sized satellite dishes.The $1.82 billion deal announced today, along with DirecTV's pending purchase of a movie-channel service, will give DirecTV about 7 million U.S. subscribers and more than 370 channels.
Its closest competitor, EchoStar Communications Corp., has about 2 million subscribers. DirecTV, which has about 4.5 million subscribers, is owned by Hughes Electronics Corp., an El Segundo, Calif.-based unit of General Motors Corp.
DaimlerChrysler pursuing Nissan
TOKYO -- Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-largest automaker, and DaimlerChrysler AG are discussing a possible alliance, though nothing has been finalized.The announcement today from DaimlerChrysler came amid reports that the German company, which is the world's fifth biggest automaker, was ready to buy as much as a 30 percent stake in the Japanese company. Nissan is struggling to survive under a debt load totaling about $22.2 billion.
Discount retailer liquidating company
NORWALK, Conn. -- Discount retailer Caldor Corp., which has operated under bankruptcy court protection since 1995, announced today it was closing its 145 stores for good.The decision to liquidate the company follows the refusal of a group of creditors to agree to a plan of reorganization, Caldor management said in a news release.
The $2.5 billion company, with about 20,000 employees, operates stores in nine East Coast and Mid-Atlantic states including Connecticut and New York. Going-out-of-business sales will likely begin in several weeks and be completed by May, the company said.
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