78 TO LOSE JOBS WHEN CAPE SHOPKO CLOSES

When ShopKo closes its Cape Girardeau store in April, 78 employees will lose their jobs.

ShopKo Stores Inc., announced this week that it would close 23 stores, including an anchor store at Westfield Shoppingtown and a store in the Kentucky Oaks Mall at Paducah, Ky.

The two stores, which opened simultaneously in April 1999, will each close about the same time, in late April, said Sheree Olsen, a media relations representative for ShopKo at its office in Green Bay, Wis.

Gordon Brothers, a group that provides liquidation services, has been designated to handle the store's liquidation here.

ShopKo, a Fortune 500 company, operates 394 retail stores in 22 states.

The closing announcement came as a surprise to Jim Govro, manager of Westfield Shoppingtown here.

"The closing announcement came so quick," he said, "we had no idea of the actions. We're just now getting out of the shock phase."

Mall explores options

Govro, meanwhile, is exploring options.

"I started making telephone calls Wednesday night," he said.

ShopKo occupies more than 80,000 square feet at the shopping center.

That could be expanded, said Govro. The former four-screen movie theater contains 16,000 square feet, which could be absorbed to shove the total to 96,710 square feet.

ShopKo was one of three anchor stores at Westfield.

The entire ShopKo corporate cuts will result in 2,500 lost jobs. The closures included stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska and Missouri, as well as a distribution center in Quincy, Ill.

The job cuts also include 136 positions at the company's corporate headquarters in Green Bay and another 41 at the Pamida division company headquarters in Omaha, Neb.

The Wednesday announcement is a result of a review launched in November. The moves, said ShopKo officials, will position ShopKo well for what has become a challenging retail environment.