KB Toys to Cut 3,500 Jobs, Close 375 Stores

Mall-based retailer KB Toys Inc., which filed for bankruptcy protection this month, said Wednesday that it would close at least 375 stores and cut 3,500 jobs as part of its restructuring.

Pittsfield, Mass.-based KB, which is controlled by private equity firm Bain Capital, said it would announce the closures of an additional 19 to 115 stores by Feb 11. Clearance sales of as much as $122.5 million of inventory will begin today at the first group of 356 stores -- 38 of which are in California -- KB said.

Before the closures, KB operated 1,200 stores -- 134 in California -- and employed 13,000 people nationwide.

The company suffered last Christmas as discount stores duked it out for market share by selling some of the season’s hottest toys below wholesale costs.

KB said its problems were exacerbated because it had been locked into high rents in hundreds of ailing malls that no longer generated enough traffic to justify the expensive leases.

In Southern California, the stores to be closed are in Corona Hills Plaza in Corona, Mesa Verde Shopping Center in Costa Mesa, Puente Hills Mall in Industry, West Park Plaza in Irvine, Long Beach Center in Long Beach, Beverly Center in Los Angeles, Mall of Orange in Orange, Paseo Colorado in Pasadena, Loehmann’s Plaza in Reseda, Peninsula Center in Rolling Hills Estate, Santa Monica Place in Santa Monica, The Oaks Shopping Center in Thousand Oaks and The Quad at Whittier in Whittier.