Business Closings

Facing mounting losses and dwarfed by the competition, Strouds -- a pioneer in the specialty home linens industry -- has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in three years and plans to shut all 47 of its stores, the company said Thursday. "Going out of business" signs were posted in stores Wednesday, one day after Strouds Acquisition Corp., the City of Industry-based seller of towels, sheets and other home furnishings, filed for Chapter 11.

Say what you will. Say stay off the sidewalk. Ora Alcox is going to see the space shuttle. On Friday, the now-earthbound Endeavour will be wheeled by very slowly, a block from Alcox's Inglewood home. She will witness it, she says; try to stop her: "They'll have to drag me, screaming and crying. I'm 70 years old. I have MS and I plan to see this. " At the drive-through window at Randy's Donuts, Alcox was picking up her usual apple fritter. And like a lot of those there for their morning fixes Thursday, she was peeved.

The court-appointed manager of a bankrupt Reseda nursing home that abruptly evicted its 63 residents Friday night had failed in last-minute negotiations to sell the facility and contends that there was not enough cash to run it even one more day, authorities said Saturday. Two other nursing homes owned by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Phoenix Health Group, in Alta Loma and Long Beach, could face closures this week, depending on the outcome of a Monday morning hearing in U.S.

DAMASCUS, Syria - Hours after two car bombs exploded recently in Syria's capital, the few residents still willing to venture out on what would normally be a lively Friday night were gathered at the Sham City Center mall, inside thick walls with entrances guarded by metal detectors. In the food court, families and young couples lingered over ice cream cones and greasy American-style fast food. Most shops were empty save for their sales staff. Outside, almost a minute passed before a vehicle did. Cabs were few and far between.

Ameriquest Mortgage Co., once the "Proud Sponsor of the American Dream," is closing. Citigroup Inc. said Friday that it would buy the remnants of the Ameriquest empire from ACC Capital Holdings in Orange, and ACC said it was "preparing for an orderly wind-down of its retail mortgage business." Ameriquest shuttered its 229 retail offices months ago. As recently as 2005, Ameriquest and its sister company, Argent Mortgage, were together the No. 1 sub-prime mortgage lender in the world.

Two years ago, Conde Nast's Vogue published its biggest issue, an advertising-packed behemoth that symbolized the prosperity of New York's glittering magazine industry as it rode the twin booms in the economy and luxury spending to dramatic heights. Generous expense accounts were de rigueur at glossy fashion and lifestyle magazines. Some top editors and publishers enjoyed clothing allowances and mortgage assistance. Even lowly assistants flitted about in chauffeur-driven town cars.

Home Depot Inc. announced Monday that it was closing its 34 upscale Expo and other home specialty centers and laying off 7,000 people as a result of the crumbling U.S. housing market and worldwide economic downturn. The company said it would close its 34 sprawling Expo Design Center stores by April, including eight in Southern California, and 14 smaller stores. Some employees were stunned. "Shock. It was shock.

Squeezed by plummeting CD sales, retail giant Best Buy Co. has sacked the head of its troubled Musicland division and said it is closing about 110 mall-based music and movie stores. The shake-up follows the worst year in U.S. album sales in more than a decade. December sales at the Musicland division -- which operates such mall-based stores as Sam Goody and Suncoast -- declined 15% to about $350 million, the company said.

Malibu Grand Prix, where kids rode miniature race cars and businessmen slapped pinball machines on their lunch hour for more than 20 years, closes for good Sunday after losing its lease. "I can't believe that!" said Andrew Caspary of Hidden Hills, after finishing his last go-cart ride. "It's terrible. I always look forward to coming here." Officials of Malibu Grand Prix Corp., which runs 30 amusement centers across the country, said this week the company lost its lease on the Northridge site.

It's the end of time, at least as far as AT&T is concerned. The brief note in customers' bills hardly does justice to the momentousness of the decision. "Service withdrawal," it blandly declares. "Effective September 2007, Time of Day information service will be discontinued." What that means is that people throughout Southern California will no longer be able to call 853-1212 to hear a woman's recorded voice state that "at the tone, Pacific Daylight Time will be . . ."

Campanile, the seminal Los Angeles restaurant founded in 1989 by Mark Peel and his then-wife Nancy Silverton, is closing. Prolific restaurateur Bill Chait and critically acclaimed chef Walter Manzke sealed a deal late Wednesday night to take over the space with plans to install Manzke's envisioned bistro and bakery, Republique, in its place. The storied restaurant, with its distinctly American approach using top-quality farmers' market ingredients, helped set the tone for Los Angeles dining in the 1990s.

Sixty-two years after Ken Crane started selling early-model television sets out of a storefront on Crenshaw Boulevard, the venerable local chain is going out of business. Over the weekend, the six remaining stores in the Ken Crane's Home Entertainment chain began liquidating their inventory of big-screen TVs, and a big sale drew crowds. But the ongoing sale was bittersweet for Crane's daughter and son, who grew up in the family's stores and took over the company after their father's death in 2004.

Walt Disney Co. is shutting down most of its ESPN Zone stores, a chain of sports-themed restaurants in seven cities, according to a person familiar with the matter. The only outlets to remain open are those tied to a Disney property, such as the Downtown Disney shopping district in Anaheim. ESPN Zone opened in 1998 to capitalize on ESPN's brand, while bringing Disney's family-friendly atmosphere to the sports bar concept. The upscale eateries serve burgers and brews as walls of big-screen TVs beam baseball and other sporting events into the dining area.

The long-troubled Koo Koo Roo restaurant chain planned to close 10 of its last 13 locations Wednesday night, its parent company said. The stores are being closed as part of a bankruptcy reorganization announced last week by Magic Brands, the Austin, Texas, company that now owns Koo Koo Roo along with the Fuddruckers hamburger chain. Dwayne Chambers, senior vice president for marketing of Magic Brands, said the chain will continue to operate three of its stores, those in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and the Larchmont neighborhood of L.A..

The original Pinkberry location in West Hollywood, also known as the yogurt shop that spawned 1,000 parking tickets, has closed permanently after five years. Pinkberry spokeswoman Mary Sadeghy said the lack of parking contributed to the decision Sunday to close the store at 868 Huntley Drive. She added that it would remain as an administrative building for Los Angeles-based Pinkberry, which now operates 83 frozen yogurt shops worldwide. "We just decided that we had enough other locations within that vicinity to service that market," Sadeghy said.

Federal officials said Sunday that they have shut down the Van Nuys bus company involved in a crash that killed six people in Arizona as records revealed that the company had skirted government regulation, amassed a poor safety record and was operating off the books. Tierra Santa Inc. President Cayetano Martinez signed a consent decree Friday acknowledging that his company never had federal authorization required to transport passengers over state lines, according to court documents released Sunday.

Bank customers cleared out safe deposit boxes, businesses shut their doors and residents fled their homes in Valley Park, Mo., as the Meramec River flowed into the streets for the third time in a year. All across eastern and central Missouri, the spring of 1994 was beginning to look a lot like the summer of 1993. Volunteers piled up sandbags, and evacuees camped out in churches and schools. Streams also were out of their banks from Oklahoma to West Virginia.

The head of a novel upstart business called Doctors for Rent has closed up shop because of his past legal troubles. William H. Ziering, one of the principals of Doctors for Rent, said he closed the business after the Monterey Herald newspaper inquired about his history of legal troubles, which includes a federal prison sentence for cheating on a drug study and a number of sexual harassment lawsuits. "I'm stopping that as of right now," Ziering said.

In Whittier, city officials are clearing the way for office buildings, retail shops and even homes to take root on the land where the vacant car lots stand. Classrooms offering lessons on green technology are being considered as a replacement for the deserted dealerships in Riverside County. And in coastal Ventura, a card club could soon take up residence among the Toyotas, Chevys and Jaguars being sold at the struggling Ventura Auto Center. For decades, cities have set aside vast expanses of land for auto malls and the dealerships have rewarded them with a steady flow of tax dollars, often providing 20% or more of an average town's sales receipts.

When the five-minute bell rang Friday evening in the courtyard of the Pasadena Playhouse, it sounded almost like a summons to a funeral. The subdued crowd, which had come to a performance of "Camelot," slowly entered the lobby, murmuring quietly in small groups. In interviews earlier in the evening, some of them expressed surprise and dismay that the theater company has decided to close its doors Feb. 7 as a result of financial hardship. On Friday, Stephen Eich, the playhouse's executive director, said the theater is out of cash and faces more than $500,000 in immediate bills, as well as payments on more than $1.5 million in bank loans and other debts.