Going Out Of Business? Rb Furniture Urged To Set The Final Date

To some it seemed like RB Furniture's going-out-of-business sale would never end.

The state attorney general's office also began to wonder.

After receiving complaints that the sale was being extended, because RB Furniture was bringing in new merchandise, the attorney general threatened to move against the company.

As a result, RB Furniture set a date for closing its two remaining Washington stores: April 15.

RB Furniture, which went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December, also told a bankruptcy court in California, that it will close its stores in Tukwila and Tacoma by then.

RB Furniture shuttered its Redmond store last February.

The dispute is similar to one at Frederick & Nelson, which is also liquidating its merchandise.

A bankruptcy judge here, last week, allowed F&N to continue selling merchandise shipped in especially for the sale.

Carl Friedel, manager of RB Furniture's Tukwila store, said the sale there will end on April 4, a week and a half before the store is closed.

A senior official at RB Furniture's headquarters, in Irvine, Calif., confirmed that some new merchandise had been brought in. The source, who asked not to be identified, said the practice had stopped.

He said the going-out-of-business sales, which started before the company agreed, on Dec. 4, to creditors' demands that it enter Chapter 11, were originally scheduled to end January 31. But they were extended because of the bankruptcy filing.

Before its bankruptcy, RB Furniture had 46 stores, about half in California. It also had stores in Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. By the end of February, the company's non-California locations had dropped from 16 to 10. By the end of last month, that number was down to five.

Despite the dispute with the Washington attorney general's office, the company says it is in compliance with all rulings by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, located in Santa Ana, Calif.