Movie Gallery in Ironton reportedly to close

Published 10:19 am Thursday, May 13, 2010

Ironton’s Movie Gallery is scheduled to close, an employee at another of the popular video store’s Tri-State locations confirmed Tuesday.

The employee, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of being fired and losing unemployment benefits, said the stores got the official word from the company last Wednesday that the Ironton store will be closing, although no timeline has been announced.

A woman identifying herself as a manager at the Ironton Hills location declined to comment or confirm that the store is closing. The corporate office was unable to be reached for comment.

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Movie Gallery Inc has filed petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, according to the company’s Website.

The restructuring includes the closure of 760 Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video and Game Crazy store locations.

“We are closing these stores because they are not profitable and because funds from liquidating them can help us moving forward,” the web site stated.

A company press release dated Feb. 3 also stated that it anticipates closing additional stores during the bankruptcy process.

The Russell, Ky. location is also scheduled to close. The Summit and Catlettsburg locations have already closed.

The company first announced that the Summit location would close but did not make known the fate of other area stores, said B.J. Fraley, a former manager at the Catlettsburg location said.

“They left it as a gray area,” Fraley said. “It’s not like they had a list. They had one and then like two weeks later they (announced) another and then another.”