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Fairway Market, the longtime New York City supermarket, is preparing to file for bankruptcy within days, with a plan to sell off the business to a number of buyers who have been circling the chain, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The grocery store, which was put up for sale last year, said yesterday that it has no plans to close its 14 locations. It issued a statement after the New York Post reported that the company could file for chapter 7 bankruptcy as soon as Wednesday. Fairway called the story “categorically untrue” and said that it plans to soon announce a “value maximizing transaction that will provide for the ongoing operations of the store.” The statement added: “Our lenders remain extremely supportive of our efforts.” The company has struggled to stay afloat under its heavy debt load and competition from other grocery stores at a time when brick-and-mortar retail is being squeezed by online shopping. Since last year, the supermarket chain has been working with bankruptcy-focused law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges and PJ Solomon on the sale process and preparations for a bankruptcy.

New Jersey has become the first state to guarantee severance pay for mass layoffs, according to the bill’s sponsors and the governor’s office, the Associated Press reported. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed legislation on Tuesday that requires companies with 100 or more full-time employees to pay them a week’s pay for each year of service during a mass layoff, plant closing or transfer resulting in 50 or more workers losing their jobs. The law also increases the minimum number of days notice from 60 to 90 for such events. The legislation was motivated by last year’s closing of Toys “R” Us, which cost 2,000 employees their jobs in New Jersey. Two of the private equity firms that owned the retail giant eventually established a severance fund. The new law has its critics. The New Jersey Business and Industry Association, which lobbies state government on behalf of businesses, said the law will take effect just as other requirements like a higher minimum wage and increased taxes are hitting. The association said in a statement that the legislation makes New Jersey less competitive. The legislation passed along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. The law goes into effect in July.

Fast-food chain Krystal has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection despite efforts to shore up its bottom line by closing dozens of restaurants, USA TODAY reported. The Dunwoody, Ga.-based company, whose restaurants are scattered throughout the southeastern U.S., blamed rising labor costs and online delivery competition as factors leading to its bankruptcy. Krystal has 182 company-owned restaurants and another 116 franchise locations in 10 states, according to a court filing: Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Arkansas. Most of its restaurants are located in suburban communities with many of them near interstate exits. "Shifting consumer tastes and preferences, growth in labor and commodity costs, increased competition, and unfavorable lease terms" were key reasons for the company's bankruptcy, chief restructuring officer Jonathan Tibus wrote yesterday in a court filing. Owned by K-Square Restaurant Partners LP, Krystal received an investment of $59.8 million in April 2018, which it used to repay $42 million of loans, fund "substantial remodeling" and make other investments, such as marketing, according to a court filing. The company closed about 44 locations over the last year, including 13 on Dec. 15, to boost its finances.

New York grocer Fairway Market is planning to file for a chapter 7 bankruptcy, the New York Post reported. The grocery chain previously filed for chapter 11 in 2016. Under the current plan, Fairway will close all 14 of its stores, including its flagship store at Broadway and West 74th Street. The liquidation could be announced as soon as today. The liquidation plan comes despite ongoing interest by a potential rival in acquiring the Fairway brand, which dates to 1933, when the Glickberg family opened a fruit and vegetable stand on the Upper West Side. Fairway has been toying with bankruptcy protection after failing to find a buyer for its 14 stores last year. Aside from Village Super Market, prospective buyers of stores owned by Brigade Capital Management and Goldman Sachs Group were scared off by its $174 million debt and expensive leases, including $6 million in rent on its flagship New York City store.

The parent company of Hair Cuttery, Bubbles, and other salon chains will close more than 80 locations around the country starting later in January, the Washington Business Journal reported. The Ratner Cos., based in Vienna, Va., said that it will close 10 percent of its 844 stores. The portfolio currently includes salons under the Hair Cuttery, Bubbles, Salon Cielo, Salon Plaza and Cibu brands. The company is making the move to combat “intense competition and rising operating costs,” said Phil Horvath, Ratner President and COO. But the company has already culled its portfolio somewhat in the past two years. The company has typically reduced the portfolio by as much as 5 percent of stores annually. The latest closures follow an evaluation that took into account the stores’ performance and current lease terms. The stores will begin closing in late January. Ratner will maintain a presence in all of its existing markets, according to the company.

Payless ShoeSource may have closed its last U.S. stores in June, but it's already planning a comeback, USA Today reported. The Topeka, Kansas-based company announced yesterday that it has emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time. The footwear company says that it will have a focus on international markets and wants to reinvigorate its largest business unit, Latin America. Payless, which is still selling some of its shoes on Amazon.com, says that it will also relaunch its U.S. e-commerce site and open some physical stores in the U.S. Specific details, including a timeline, were not available. Payless filed for chapter 11 protection last February and shuttered its remaining 2,000-plus stores in North America by the end of June. The 62-year-old chain also filed for chapter 11 in 2017, cut debts and closed nearly 700 struggling stores. The latest bankruptcy filing didn’t affect its more than 710 franchises or stores in Latin America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

As the high-end retailer Barneys goes through liquidation, employees at its flagship store say that they haven’t received information about a closing date, severance pay or benefits, the New York Times reported. Paychecks were delayed this month after what a company email said was a “cyber incident,” further stressing employees, who don’t know if their personal information was compromised. Many of the concerns were detailed in a letter filed on Tuesday to the judge overseeing the bankruptcy case from employees who have worked at Barneys for more than 20 years. The letter said that the liquidation firm, Barneys’s remaining management and the workers’ union had been unable to answer their inquiries for a month. Barneys responded in a separate filing, and said it had only about $2 million to pay $4 million in severance obligations. Of that, $800,000 has already been paid out. While the $2 million was negotiated when Barneys was sold, the shortfall was not disclosed in public court filings.

Suppliers that stocked the shelves during Sears Holdings Corp.’s bankruptcy are being forced to swallow losses and some employees won’t get severance they are owed, even as law firms are guaranteed full payment for their work on the retailer’s chapter 11 case, the Wall Street Journal reported. A year after the storied retailer sold its best stores and assets to ESL Investments Inc., the investment firm owned by former Sears Chief Executive Edward Lampert, the shell left behind in bankruptcy is struggling to pay its debts after racking up more than $200 million in bills from lawyers and advisers. White-shoe law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, which represents unsecured creditors, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, which represents the independent committee of Sears’s board, have earned more than $50 million. Akin Gump has access to another $25 million set aside to cover the cost of pursuing a speculative lawsuit against Lampert, which is billed as a way to return more money to Sears creditors. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, who approved Sears’s liquidation plan last year, pushed vendors to settle for a maximum of 33 cents on the dollar, with the potential to recoup more if a potential lawsuit against Lampert yields more money.