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The Decline of Shopko...What Happened?
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- Опубликовано: 13 авг 2019
- In June of 2019, after more than 50 years of business, Shopko closed the last of its stores. This video talks about how they grew so big and theorizes what went wrong in the end.
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As someone from Wisconsin, I can comfortably say, we are still getting over this crisis.
I literally just said to myself the other day "I need to run to Shopko today." Oh wait...
I miss Shopko so much. They normally had a great selection when it came to woman’s plus clothing.
It’s been 9 months since your comment. The crisis still isn’t over. 😂
@Copyright Free Audio south dakota is fucked😂
@Copyright Free Audio 3 months later, as a Madisonian, I can say that now you’re right. Lol
"THE DECLINE OF SHOPKO"
Me: Who the hell is Shopko?
CLICKS VIDEO
1:48 "get 2 live chicks with purchase of $1 or more" that's why the business was backrupt from the start!!!
Same
From Wisconsin, lived right next to one of there warehouses. It's a shame that there gone now
@@Remi0dd6 I am from California and i would say "what the hell is Shopko, we have Winco and they are doing good"
SAME
Thank you for doing my job of over half a decade justice! I worked here from my teen years to my mid-twenties. It does kill me a little bit inside that all of the photos in-store in this video are post-liquidation announcement. Our stores were so beautiful before those ugly red and yellow liquidation signs were plastered everywhere. Losing this store was losing a family I built over the years and it still breaks my heart to know its gone.
Employees of Shopko across the board are still waiting for our severance pay as well, with this case being brought to courts by the same people who backed Toys'R'Us after their closure. We were promised payment in writing with a very sneaky and clever loophole in the paperwork that gave Sun Capital a way to just... not provide what they were so happy to "guarantee" us. Sure would appreciate a $552 check in the mail and though I'm not optimistic, I am certainly hopeful.
As an update to the payments I finally got mine about two years ago in 2021 no idea how they tracked me down but they manage to mail me a check for about half the amount of what it should have been. Class action lawsuit fees reduced lot of people severance pay outs in situations like this.... I worked there for almost a decade too through highschool and college untill it's closure in 2019....
@@courtshort219 Same here. I think my check was around $318, which was still better than nothing considering I had long given up on it by the time I received it. Our store building has become a new business and the general consensus is still “Damn, I miss ShopKo.”
That moment when one of your top RUclipsrs features a store from your hometown.
Rest in peace Ashwaubenon Shopko, you will be missed. Oh and the De Pere one was alright too.
Literally the last thing I bought there was a Packers seat cover for my office chair. This was at the store near the East Town Mall on the east side.
RIP, Beaver Dam Shopko.
Never forget the original store on the West side
RIP La Crosse and Onalaska Shopkos
Rest in peace, Manitowoc Shopko. Multiple family members and friends worked there at one point or another.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Payless shoes partnership.
Company Man saying “Id like to hear what you have to to say” at the end of each video is the only thing that makes me feel important
You are always important :)
Cool but please don't forget the french fries this time, thx you
The thing that makes me feel.important is after watching a great video by 《Whaang!》 He tells me to
"GET FUCKED"!
Damn do I ever feel like a bigshot after that pep injection!
I hate to say it, but he sounds so depressed every video when he says it :(
Only Company Man is important
Used to work at a Shopko in a small, rural town. Sad to see them close all their stores. They really made a difference, especially in places where the nearest Walmart or Target was 100+ miles away.
I am from a small rural town that lost their Shopko in May 2019. It was the general retail store. We have to drive to a different town now for household stuff.
@@amberp8835 I happened to be in Two Harbors, MN in June last year and went one of the last days they were open. Now all they really have left is Super One Foods unless you drive all the way to Duluth.
Free Geek Dude who cares bitch?
I’m not trying too late but I’m not hard for me to be happy lol I gotta was a good time morning I wanna is the the day you got your hair done and honey you are welcome gorgeous honey I loved y’all so y’all can come here over here sometime I know
I just want you to be a great day and I will let y’all do that lol I wanna wanna is the morning y’all got a lot to come up with you you wanna morning I wanna
How about a episode on RC Cola. Always curious how they stay in business with Pepsi and Coke around
RC currently is owned by Dr pepper seven up. Dr pepper is also a Texas based company last time facts were checked. Thought you'd like some RC fact
I live in a more rural area and in gas stations all around here they’re always the cheapest option over Pepsi and coke. But nowadays it’s all getting so cheap it’s seeming to matter less and less now.
Add to that, how do A&W or Mellow Yellow still compete with the big brands ??
@@truckercowboyed2638 A&W is actually good, much better than Barq's
A&W and IBC is where it's at
Mug is aight too
Freight Train.
Never heard of it, but still watching this episode of Company Man.
Axel Brito said the same thing ahhaha
Same here.
I haven't heard of them either but that's not stopping me from watching.
Same
Same but I'll watch any Company Man episode.
Never heard of Shopko before. This must be what being a European CompanyMan watcher is like.
Take Walker
Yeah. I’m feeling unappreciated too 😭😭😄
I'm from Wisconsin and I hadn't heard of them until the bankruptcy. Their signs are on buildings.
Nah, most of America has never heard of them either
@@sugarfrosted2005 how being from Wisconsin have you never heard of them? Lived all over the place in WI, never been more than an hour or two from one.
I live in Ohio, and, before this video, I never heard of Shopko. So, don't feel bad, a lot of Americans haven't heard of it, either.
I've heard that a huge part of Shopko's success was that they owned their own real estate. Sun Capital then sold that real estate to another one of their companies and made Shopko pay ridiculous lease amounts while Sun Capital also loaded the company down with a bunch of debt.
Me: *clicks video The decline of Shopko*
Me: wth is shopko
Company man: they’re are based in Green Bay
Me: *puts on cheese hat*
good on you
“they’re are”
Hooray
this is the only correct response
Shopko was my first job about ten years ago. When they closed a couple months ago they were still selling the same clocks, home decor and furniture they were selling when I worked there.
oof m
Same.
I came across food that expired 2 years before at Shopko 🤢
It’s cool to see Green Bay on company man’s channel! My hometown. My company actually bought out 9 shopko stores in Wisconsin after they closed.
Same! I lived nearby to the OG store there. Sad to see it go.
Also so cool to see pics of the town. I kept going: Hey I knew that area! Or hey I walked down that street!
Yes! I live right around GB too.
I have heard of Shopko, because 1) I have relatives in northern Wisconsin, and 2) I know Da Yoopers' Christmas classic "Rusty Chevrolet" by heart.
My mom is a real one she’s had been working in the business since 1999 and when it closed down we where all low key upset
We had a lady at my store, who started at it when it first opened in like the mid 80s, all the way to the last day. You could tell she was trying not to show her heartbreak on the exterior for those last few months.
Wisconsinite here.
We had 3 Shopkos within 30 miles.
And a few Pamidas.
This video hit me in the feels a bit.
Shopko had THE COOLEST Electronics Department in the 90s.
But the last 10 years or so, you could tell they weren’t doing well.
Pop Culture Don northern michigan native here. Our pamida turned into shopko and recently closed.
My thoughts exactly. Shopko's electronics department was no longer strong after the 2008 recession.
We had a pamida in Newcastle Wyoming. Tiny town. Then it turned into a shopko. Pamida was okay but when they rebranded to shopko it was terrible. Many people in that town drove 160 miles round trip to south Dakota to do any shopping.
In the 90s, I used to go to Shopko every weekend with my mom and check out the video games that I wanted to save my allowance to buy
I'll always remember playing the demo games on the PS2 and Xbox at Shopko.
Finally for the first time, Company Man presents a business I've never heard of.
Scott Roberts That’s so interesting. There’s a number of companies he has done that I’ve never heard of, but considering I’m from Green Bay, Shopko was a big deal.
Being from Wisconsin, Shopko is part of the DNA of stores that are so ingrained in our lexicon like Menards, Fleet Farm, Culver’s, and Kwik Trip. There was a Shopko Express right down the street from us and it was so convenient. Miss you Shopko.
Oh wow, I'm surprised to see this covered! The Shopko we had here in my small town in Washington closed down just this past March. I didn't know about the whole chain shuttering, that makes me kind of sad. Even before the store was announced to close it was always kind of dreary and empty when I'd go there with my mom, other than the employees we'd often be the only ones in the store. We went last summer when the garden section was closing down permanently, and to me that seemed like the writing on the wall for the store then. I wasn't surprised at all when it was announced in December 2018 that it was going to begin the liquidation process and close permanently.
Even though the store was always kind of run down it made me feel weirdly nostalgic for all the crummy department stores we went to when I was growing up that were in the same condition -- the sallow lighting, the warped linoleum floors, the rusting shelves with disorganized merchandise haphazardly strewn about. When the store was closing down it was a trip picking through all the assorted weird junk they had laid out on the shelves while depressing pop music played in the background. The whole vibe was just very surreal.
I can't help but think that Shopko's demise was a similar case to the demise of Toys 'R' Us where a venture capital company bought it out with the intent of picking it clean and saddling it with their debt before shutting it down and skipping town. The debt inexplicably ballooning that much in that time stinks to the high heavens of venture parasites, since the money taken out obviously wasn't being put back into the stores. Because of its rural town niche I think it would have been able to survive if it weren't for the venture parasite debt. Thank you for bringing attention to this regional chain!
Very good description of what a closing or dying department store feels like. Author quality. I always feel like people should just steal the stuff from the liquidating department stores or empty Jcpennys. It really feels like 0 people will care if you just walk out with it. But I dont because of integrity I guess.
Where in Washington? I’m from Spokane and remember visited all the Shopkos around town as a kid
Reasons I saw for shopko failing (at least at my store
1. The store was horribly maintained (floors stained and dim lights)
2. A Walmart was built nearby
3. It didn’t have competitive prices
4. It has nothing unique inside, everything in Shopko could be found at the nearby kohl’s for better prices
I haven't seen a Shopko since the early 90s. I remember all the doors in the bathroom had no locks, were off their hinges, or were just flat out missing.
The Neenah one? Cause that sounds like my Neenah one
The Green Bay one (in the mall) was pretty good!
The local Shopko near me was selling a game that came out over 8 years ago for $40 roughly. It was Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. MW3 came out in 2011! Why would I pay near full retail price for an 8 year old game?
Yes it was mismanaged near the end. Do you think Sun Capital did anything other than raid its savings and run up debt to enrich themselves? Having stashed all the money in havens, even the lowest investor walks away at least 20x richer.
Declare bankruptcy to avoid paying debt to the suppliers. Sell the physical assets to a liquidator, even more $$$. The workers or the nature of the business is meaningless to these investors.
Worked here for 8.5 years it was definitly a shock when it went out of business.but i miss all of my friends from when i worked here.
Lanea Gosling the one in my city it was entirely baffling it stayed in business as long as it did, deader than Kmart
That’s sad sorry for your losses
I’m from Green Bay myself, so I know how Shopko closing all their stores made the city lose a small part of itself
I follow a group called The Greater Green Bay Society of the Llama and for the days leading up to the last store in Green Bay to close we would all just reminisce about our memories of Shopko.
Mine was that I got a Packers seat cover for my office chair at my very last visit at the Shopko in the East Town Mall in Green Bay.
😳me too😳
I grew up near a ShopKo in Yakima. I even attended the Star Fox Weekend there!
@Johnny Twobyfour 10-4 Good buddy
Ours just closed in June.
Did get a good deal on a mattress though.
Dankest Hour ours closed too
Albert Lea and Mankato ShopKo's closed a few weeks ago. I also got a good mattress.
Did you shop there or just go to wal-mart
We lost ours in a small town in Iowa now only have a grocery store and dollar store no general retail store for 22 miles at least.
What flavor was it
I live in Wisco and every time I went to shopko there was barely anybody in there
*Disco
Same.
I'm from Mauston and ours was the only one in the state in the original Dec. 2018 closures announcement. It closed for good in March.
@@JackTheGamingGuy4REALZ * wacko
It used to be the place to be back in the day. Then more Targets and Walmarts came to the area.
Both Pamida and Shopko were magical shopping havens for me as a kid in South Dakota. We were too small for Wal-Marts or K-Marts, and hey, these places carried video games! That, to me, was an absolute godsend. I've since moved away and haven't been back to the area or seen either store for years, so I'm sad to hear they failed.
Sun Capitol did the same with V&D (Dutch departement store chain). Maybe it's fun to make a video about Sun Capitol.
Sounds like another Bain Capital, buy a struggling company with a good balance sheet, saddle it with ridiculous amounts of debt (which your cronies underwrite) which you use to pay out dividends and then watch it burn to the ground.
I'd love to hear more about European companies
And didn't they do the same to Mervyn's?
Once again - it seems like the free market is only theoretical at this point
@@Ididerus
Well others say Shopko was jacking up the prices
Holy crap I've been waiting for this video for so long. I'm a former shopko employee, it was my first job a few years back.
druidwitch how was it?
I'm green bay #baysquad
High five, I worked in the furthest east Shopko for a while.
I worked at the Monona location.
Please tell me what happened to Pontiac.
The recession lol. I miss those cars
Lack of purpose for the brand lol. "Sporty" versions of shitty GM front drive cars was never a good idea
The government
@@nothanksguy Honestly those shitty GM FWD cars are pretty good if you're in the used car market, given GM part sharing, and after market.
Pretty much after the 1990's they ran out of ideas for Pontiac, they didn't really sell well, so they just axed them with other brands that didn't sell well, those being Hummer, Saturn, Saab, etc etc.
We had a Pamida in our town; it later became a Shopko.
Shopko’s prices were not worth the “convenience” of them being close. Actually their prices seemed sky-high!
Actually shopped at the Pamida in Plattsmouth and Harlan and witnessed the changeover to a Shopko
_“A lot like KMart.”_
In more ways than one.
At least Kmart is still in business, can't say that about Shopko
Big oof
@@blueshirt1619 Where is that Shopko located once Kmart stood? I'd like to know.
K Mart is extremely popular in Australia
The whole concept of the leveraged buyout needs to be made illegal...
If I can buy an entity, by loading all my debt on the entity, then basically I can buy anything right?
Without any actual capability of my own to buy it otherwise
It's a like a mortgage: you're taking out a loan against the value of the thing you want to buy rather than using something you already own as collateral. But I agree it gets used to do a lot of bad things. It's proven to be a very effective method for looting.
@@MatthewStinar the problem is also, with a mortgage I need to prove I have a regular source of income that can cover the payments and the charges.
Generally I don't think any bank is going to approve my mortgage application if my proposed primary source of income to pay off the debt, is rental income on the property!
If it really was so simple, the bank might as well diversify into property and become the landlord instead.
I live near Green Bay and Shopko has been a fixture here my entire life. That said, the last 10 years or so, the stores have seemed like ghost towns, and I always asked myself, every time I went in one, how are they still in business? The writing was on the wall for a long time.
My dad worked at Shopko for 10+ years. Like you said, towards the end, their stores started looking reaaallly outdated, like stuck in the 90s. Then I noticed the store was not getting fixed when cracks would show in the floor or the walls.
Never heard of it, sounds fascinating. Here's another regional company you should do, A&P. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, they operated grocery stores under different names. They ceased operations in November 2015
I remember A&P from when I was a kid in the 80s. They competed locally with Farmer Jack. Both have been replaced with Kroger.
A&P used to be the biggest retailer. I remember seeing them when we went on a vacation when I was a kid. I didn't know shit about the history, but I thought they were cool because all Id seen was the local and big national/international chains of similar stores. They were like a really big convenience store I remember.
A & P practically invented the supermarket.
Grand Union grocery stores!
You should look into a department store called Ames. An informative video has already been made about it, but I still think you'll find it interesting, as it was another case of a local department store overexpanding and paying dearly for it.
I agree, though I never cared for Ames, they had bought out a regional department store called Hills. They converted all the Hills stores into Ames stores and struggled, at least locally. Many people who remember Hills, including myself, still miss Hills. I can still hear the jingle “Hills is where the toys are!”
Al Cohol I grew up going to Hills and miss them too. That jingle will never leave my brain.
Grew up shopping at Ames. Many a School shopping and Christmas shopping was done there!
My hometown never got a Walmart because of Ames putting up such a fit over it. Now, the old Ames building is a Price Chopper.
@@metalheadkendob Same thing happened in my town. Hills was turned into Ames, and then closed a few years later. The building is a Rural King now.
Calvin Katt same thing happened to another hills/Ames location not far from here. Ours is a Dicks Sporting Goods, our Kmart turned into a Rural King.
i think a 'rise and fall... and rise again' about six flags would be really good
As a Midwesterner, I love that you made a video about Shopko. I miss it.
I totally shopped at my local Shopko until the end. It only just closed a few months ago. I liked it a lot. 🤷♀️
I'm still in mourning :( .
I've been waiting for this one, I worked there 2017-18 and left before the bankruptcy announcement. Everyone who worked there knew it was coming. Nothing had been updated in 10+ years and the store was constantly understaffed as they refused to pay more then $10 an hour when the target across the street was starting at $12. The loss prevention was a joke leading to several instances of people loading up carts and leaving through the front door or emergency exits without being caught. Most of the customers were older and the company was not making any real effort to attract a younger demographic. The company also decided to set every stores hours in my area to 8am-10pm. That would be fine for other places but the only people who would come in after 9 at my store were either junkies or looking to steal something and the 1 person assigned to work the floor had no chance to do anything about it. All in all if they made an attempt to make the store a more attractive place to be they might have been able to turn it around.
Thank you for this video! My childhood was spent in a small town in rural Oregon during the 90s. There was a Shopko in the neighboring town and it was pretty much the Walmart of the area. They had everything. Mostly I remember the toy department. The closest Toys R Us was over 200 miles away, but thankfully Shopko had a pretty robust toy department. I remember heading in there with my allowance and picking up some Mighty Max or Street Sharks toys. Those were the days! I knew they were a midwest company, but it was always interesting to me they found a foothold in the Pacific Northwest. I will miss them more than Toys R Us, simply because I grew up with Shopko and that is where I went to buy all the cool toys.
I remember there being ShopKo in Bend Eugene/Springfield and Salem. I don’t remember any of the Portland area
I live in a town of 2000, and we had a Shopko in a neighboring town that we frequented, as we would have had to drive an hour away for clothing and home goods otherwise. One thing I noticed during the closing is that, even though things were listed as “clearance”, the price had often gone up instead of down. Shopko lost a lot of respect for that around here.
Great video, I used to work at ShopKo in Sheboygan, WI
Never heard of Shopko.....BUT, it's a video by Company Man so I'm gonna be 👀👀ing
Same
@@stevensanchez2032 same
Shopko, Pamida. Midwestern for sure. We had Pamida in Iowa since the late 70's AFAIK. Shopko came in and killed a good chain. They were in towns, pop.5,000+/- that Wal-Mart wouldn't (Thank God) at the time go into. Of course Pamida and Shopko both had a hand in killing Main Street Iowa just like Wal-Mart, just on a smaller and less ruthless scale.The Shopko in Perry, Iowa of course closed a few months ago and since there are still some decent retailers on main street the small business owners are nervous that Wally World will rear its ugly head and try to move in.
@@seththomas9105 Thanks for sharing the info.
@@NinaRossBusiness Your welcome! "Give Iowa a try!"
Yes when I lived in Spokane Washington I got my first pair of glasses there it fine and did buy my camping gear there
Never heard of Shopko or Pamida, but the story is interesting as part of the evolution of shopping, especially with smaller communities.
Driving through small towns, especially those not on an interstate, you get to see all the downtowns. Some adapted and flourish as a center of dining, drinking, town services including courts, specialty stores, town squares/parks. Some downtowns sit practically abandoned except for maybe a resale shop or an antique store. The first thought I used to get was "Darn Walmart Supercenter!"
However, in between, supermarkets got bigger and wanted ample parking. Larger discount department stores would open like Ames, K-Mart, Shopko, Pamida... then those stores expanded. Eventually, a Walmart Supercenter would open on the edge of town, or between two towns. These would in turn take buisness away from the supermarkets and department stores that originally took buisness away from downtown.
Now, even some Walmarts shut down as Amazon eats their sales. Sometimes, it comes full circle as the original downtowns get some traffic back as people still want to go out and congregate. Newer restaurants and artisan shops start reviving abandoned storefronts, luring in those who would have been at the Walmart, or K-Mart. It's really all about adapting, and it's very hard to do for most businesses. Brand loyalty is dead now. (Imagine still being loyal to Sears?) Shoppers lookung for the basics are going to for the best price and the most convenient way to get what they need. The game now is to create experiences people want. The free market will take care of what people need.
Cub Foods is a BIG thing here in MN. Almost as big as Target
Cub is as Minnesota as it gets.
@Chantel Wittrock Yep, heard of Cub but not Coborns
And Caribou haha
Not in Rochester lol it's considered almost the ghetto grocery store, Hy Vee is much better.
As soon as he mentioned Supervalu, being a resident of the lower twin cities, my ears definitely perked up. Remember Rainbow Foods?
For the first time in this series, I have never heard of this company!
orionh3000 he’s probably pretty young. I mean shopko has been in a hole for a while
@orionh3000 as you saw in the video, they only operated in Wisconsin or Washington area
@orionh3000 I live in southern California. I've never even heard of this company either. It's about regions
@orionh3000 I live on the one where New England doesn't have either of these chains and hasn't in the past 30 years.
orionh3000 to be fair, I’m pretty sure Pamida was primarily in Iowa small towns (maybe some other Midwest states too, but really a relatively small part of the US).
company man; Can you make a video on the 2009 General Motors chapter 11 reorganization? Explain was were the reasons and in another video the Lockheed bribery scandals from the 1950s all the way to the 1970s. That'll be awesome, thank you.
I wouldn't mind seeing that one.
Bright Sun Films did a great video on that.
Rip Janesville doe
As a Wisconsinite I approve of this video.
2:23 is the logo for a separate Irish supermarket named Supervalu
@Steffen Bakken From what I understand they were going out of business so Musgraves bought them and converted a lot of the stores into Supervalu. I'm just thankful that the Superquinn sausages lived on
I specifically came to the comments to see had anyone else seen it 😂
I was sure I’ve seen this brand in Europe. Thanks for making me realise that was in Ireland.
I've noticed that mistake too, they're not even related.
Musgraves bought the Superquinn chain and regrettably converted them into SuperValu stores in 2014.
Shopko definitely has had a huge presence in South Dakota, not so much anymore obviously
Ryan Kennington it was really big in Michigan too
I remember when the news first broke there were plans to save one ShopKo in Sioux Falls, stores in Mitchell, Chamberlain, Watertown and Aberdeen. In fact, Watertown was allegedly one of its most profitable stores, despite being near a Target and Walmart. Now they're all gone.
never heard of shopko, still an interesting video. thanks bro
Do a video on Venture stores... I remember they come to Texas in the early 90's and didn't last long after that attempted expansion.
Oh yeah! I remember that! The town I live in had a Venture, which became a “Big” K-Mart.
At one point, there were a lot of Venture stores in my area, but once Kmart bought 'em out in the 90s, they ceased operations in '98.
7:52 the beginning of the end. Once a place is bought by an "investment firm" it's over. every time.
Sounds like the same thing that happened to Toys R' Us.
Muarauder12 it is a very similar story yes
Bain Capital. It's how Mitt Romney paid for his car elevator.
I had one near my house. Went there a few times a week. They were a price things high and put it "on sale" kind of operation. Doesn't work well when you can get on your phone and see it's much cheaper elsewhere even on sale.
I used to shop at the Shopko in Council Bluffs, IA when I was a semi driver. Was a nice clean store.
Too bad they closed up shop.
Shopko was the best. Shopko was going to have one store left open in the middle of MN but it fell through
MN is Target land. Killed by Target.
dannydaw59
The target in my town shut down. If anything Walmart Killed it
What town? The only Shopko I would consistently go to was in Mora.
Thomas Scott
Austin, MN. My family would only go to Shopko for the shoes
Thomas Scott I still haven’t even gotten it through my head that the Mora store isn’t a Pamida anymore, and now it is a former Shopko. Strange how that works.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, shopped at Shopko most of my life and had my eyecare there up until this past year. It stings to see it go.
There are still open Shopko Opticals. Yours might be one of them...ours moved to an independent location after the local store (that I worked at) closed down.
I rememer Shopko and went there from childhood to the end. They were always nice, but towards the end they were just stagnant. I tried going to their clearance/closeout sales and realized they were bringing in merchandise to sell at "clearance", but was really more expensive than most places.
I loved ShopKo! I've got some shot glasses and Pyrex dishes I got on clearance from them years ago!
I've been waiting for this video forever. Shopko and walmart were the only two department stores in my Wisconsin city of 40k. Now we only have walmart. Ugh
Really no Target! 😱
I thought they were everywhere
@@piiweepiggy9775 We have a target about 30 miles from my city
Thank you! I’m from Green Bay and The original Shopko was my favorite! I wish it hadn’t gone under but it happens.
I bought some earrings and a Chicago Cubs pin at that store just a month before they closed.
I remember ShopKo in Reno Nevada...Seems to me it closed early '90's. I had no idea it existed after that.
As someone who lives in the town with the sole Shopko from my state (Wisconsin) that was announced to close during the initial December 2018 announcement, this video definitely hits close to home! It was originally set to close at the end of February but was able to last until shortly after it was announced that all the remaining stores would close. Roughly five months later and it still stands empty and abandoned with it's signage plastered on it. I see it every time I'm in that part of town which is usually once a week or every other week.
It was only open for a little more than 3 years (October 2015-March 2019), but I often went on a semi-regular basis usually for whatever movies and CDs they had, to which their entire stock of home media was either quickly sold off or shipped to other stores when the closure was announced.
One of my biggest memories from my time visiting the store was during it's official opening where I was talking to a woman as I was waiting in line to check out and she mentioned how this location wasn't even half the size of the one in a nearby town that's about an hour or so from where I live. Sadly, this Shopko was built on land that was previously occupied by a small gas station so they only had so much space available.
The fact that our local Walgreen's was across the street from them, as well as this being a town that also has a Family Dollar, a Dollar General and a K-Mart that will likely close only when it's one of the last ones standing possibly didn't help.
Hey company man I think you should make more videos about media company's like NBCUniversal, warner media or viacomCBS (especially with the VIACOM - CBS merger)
@@user-hv3jm2ov7j , that too. The company that owns Yahoo is a company called Oath.
When our local Jacks closed in the 90's, Shopko opened up in their building.
Ours was built on land previously occupied by a small gas station that'd been closed for several years which was demolished during the construction process.
HOLY CRAP I wanted this video ever since the store closed, but never knew a video was made about it until now!
as a texan, i think going grocery shopping at this store plus going to eat at culvers would have been the ultimate wisconsin experience
Pump and dump. Buy any company, doing well or not, suck out all the cash and then dump the carcass.
Exactly
Cannibal investing
That's not a pump and dump...
Vulture capital.
@M E
Vampire capital. Blood sucking bastids and the rank and file and community pay for it.
Last I remember we had on In Stevens Point, WI I liked them, whatever we could not find there then we would just go to Walmart, but Shopko first.
We did the same over here in Wisconsin Rapids
You should do a video on CBS and/or Viacom in honor of their merger.
Never heard of Shopko, but this was another great video by Company Man!! Thanks for posting.
Would like you to do a video on Rite Aid, but you’re probably waiting for their bankruptcy filing. Shopko was so much like rite aid with their outdated stores!
I always thought of ShopKo as a step above K-Mart or Wal-Mart. It had more the feel of Target inside. Private equity companies seem to kill more companies than anything else, and Shop=Ko is no exception.
Finally... finally... finally..! Thanks for making this topic man!
6:21 It's Pah-mydah. We used to have one in my town before Shopko took over
Me too
Shopped at Shopko in the UP of Michigan in the late 90's and early 00's. They were clean, organized, friendly staff and good selection then Walmart came in and the rest is history.
Peter Brown I grew up in Negaunee and went to Michigan Tech and shopped at Shopko in Marquette/Houghton and the Pamida/Shopko Hometown in Ishpeming all the time!
minisuds777 I grew up in iron county and we had a pamida which recently closed
RIP Shopko. I bought my first CD player boom box there in ~1992.
Fantastic synopsis and presentation! Grew up in Green Bay and Shopko was the staple and go-to for many years.
Shopko always had the best selection of extra wide men’s shoes in town. Their home goods were much higher quality than K Mart or Walmart. They also sold really high quality RTA cabinets and bookshelves. Their optical department was top notch, I still use them today. It was a great store.
Best damn glasses shop for affordable and reliable. They also had good insurance + cleaning stuff for your glasses. Gonna miss them. Walmart's cleaner for your glasses sucks.
A lot of the optical departments are still open. Ours moved out of the Shopko store when it closed and opened up in a nearby strip mall.
We had shopko in Montana ...I always found it depressing
Yes!!
"I've got to get to ShopKo to pickup the lay-away, cause Santa Claus is comin' soon in his big ole' rusty sleigh
Oh rust and smoke, da heaters broke, da door just blew away.
I light a match to see da dash and then I start to pray-eh!
The frame is bent, da muffler went, da radio its okay.
Oh what fun it is to ride in dis rusty Chevrolet!"
Da Yoopers
For Diehards Only
"Rusty Chevrolet"
striker1553 I love dat ya brought up dem Yoopers.
Hah!! I was looking for a Yoopers reference!! Nice
Very cool video and thank you for a cool exploration of a company I’ve never heard of.
1:45 "two live baby chicks with purchase of 1.00$ or more" wut
It makes sense - They did serve smaller communities, and started in the 1950's. Great way to draw in farmers
I absolutely adore IU in Hotel Del Luna! Her acting is superb-she plays an excellent “bitch” role! 😍
@@Icalasari yeah now I think about it, it does make sense lol, it was just hard for me to imagine suburban folks getting chickens lmao
@@beautyonabarnbudget Just as Icalasari said, they were never meant to be cute pets. This offer was meant to appeal to the farmers in those smaller communities, who would obviously not keep chickens as pets.
As soon as I saw that, my first thought was “those poor chicks”. Between being kept at a department store, and being given to cruel or forgetful young children, what a horrible idea.
Never heard of Shopko but I enjoyed the video. Can you do a video on Freds? They closed alot of stores over the past few months. They had around 700 stores. Now they're down to 70.
I live in Madison WI. We had at least five or more Shopko’s in our area. Last one left in June. The community was shocked and saddened about the closings. Most of us shopped their since our Moms dragged us to go clothes shopping. Great informative video. Keep em’ coming!
Three Shopkos in or near my Wisconsin town.. they were a great place to shop back in the 1970s.. they became overpriced at a time which coincides with the 'Sun' financial shenanigans pointed out in the video. It became wiser to drive three miles to Walmart than six blocks to Shopko during the 1990s. Shopko management refused to analyze and adapt to changing business conditions, especially the presence of Walmart and Target. Shopko became the 'Mr. Magoo' of the business world: blind to what was going on around them.
I use to live in Wisconsin and had a Shopko not too far from me.
same, only big department store in our small town of River Falls!!
@@fattyrodriguez821 my parents met in river falls
@@elizabethfrohn-hengst296 oo thats cool!
Have you ever been to DC Maryland or Virginia if so what are some key differences between Wisconsin and the DMV? Always curious to get peoples opinion!
@@kingselly9817 I have not. Also, to give context, it was in a rather sizeable city. Appleton.
Thanks for calling out the vulture - whoops, meant 'venture' - capitalists on stuff like this. It's no different than a mafia-style bust-out - they buy a successful business, load it up with debt, and enrich themselves while gutting the core business. Even if a business is doomed to fail because of changing market conditions or poor decisions made before the buyout, there should be some kind of penalty for capital firms that exist solely to take advantage of them.
Isn't capitalism wonderful?
@@dannydaw59 no.
Sun needs to be investigated - crony capitalism textbook definition
"In which businesses thrive *not as a result of risk*, but rather as a return on money amassed through a nexus between a business class and the political class."
Instead of admitting defeat, there's a Stop Wall Street Looting Act being written in Congress.
I wish it had less of a bombastic name, like increase private equity accountability act, but politics.
As a person who grew up in the PNW, yes Shopko exists. It also sucks. They were like a step below Target and a step above K-mart.
Grew up in a Shopko neighborhood. Thank you for helping me understand what happened to them.
There were also Shopkos in southern Utah and Arizona
Had a ShopKo just about a mile from me in Utah.
I enjoyed going to shopko as kid. Mind you I lived on the bottom eastern side of Washington state. I’d rather go there than Walmart
Same i live in eastern Washington as well
Do u live I Pullman? That's the only shopko I ever went and I live in Washington state as well
I live in Washington and i have never heard of the company. Must've been something that stayed east of the cascades
@@justinbeath5169 it was only eastern and idaho
@@justinbeath5169 there was one in Olympia right off I5 also
As a Californian, I have never heard of ShopKo. I knew of some Midwest exclusive stores, like Meijer and Kroger (former Food 4 Less employee, here,) but never ShopKo. It had that nostalgic feel, similar to my favorite K-Mart in Northern Cali. It’s so sad to see such a nostalgic store for many Midwesterners and Pacific Northwesterners go. Thanks for that amazing story, Company Man!
So it was around 2011 going into 2012. I had just got out of the Air Force and moved back to my hometown. Looking for work I halfheartedly applied to a department store called Pamida. I get hired and work the register for a while then moved to head of customer service and what-not. A short amount of time goes by and there is talk about Pamida closing. The town gets into an uproar; half are happy because they think Pamida is too expensive and the other half like the convenience of not driving an hour to Wal*Mart. Well, we begin getting rid of 'Pamida' stock and have a big going out of business sale. That alone brought out some real weirdos and entitled people. Then Shopko stock came in, the signage changed, we had a big grand opening. The mayor was there as one of the first shoppers. A year goes by and I move away from the area. Havn't thought about Shopko till this video. Interesting to see this, thank Company Man.