Levitz Furniture closing all 76 stores

Levitz Furniture is liquidating its assets and closing all 76 of its stores nationwide, including five stores and one warehouse in Washington state, with the loss of about 100 jobs here.

Mike Rosen, a spokesman for Levitz, said Thursday that a New York bankruptcy court approved the liquidation by one of the new owners of the company's assets, Hilco Merchant Resources, of Northbrook, Ill.

Levitz has stores in Bellevue, Lynnwood, Silverdale, Tacoma and Tukwila, in total employing about 60 people, Rosen said. It also operates a regional distribution center in Tukwila employing about 40 people.

"It's kind of sad--I think nobody's real happy about it," said a saleswoman in the Tukwila store who declined to give her name. "Banners went up yesterday saying we're going out of business and everything must go. There's been a lot of foot traffic."