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Struggling electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. says that it will stop matching employees’ retirement-fund contributions and close stores to help cut costs, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. RadioShack will discontinue matching for 401(k) and 1165(e) plans on Feb. 1, according to an internal memo from Chief Executive Officer Joe Magnacca that was obtained by Bloomberg. The company plans to close as many as 1,100 stores in its next fiscal year, contingent upon consent from lenders, some of which have blocked attempts to shut them. RadioShack is also reviewing health benefits, according to the memo.

The owner of a shopping center in Boynton Beach, Fla., filed for chapter 11 to halt a foreclosure lawsuit by a subsidiary of BBX Capital Corp. and then filed a lawsuit against its lender, the South Florida Business Journal reported today. BankAtlantic hit Grove Plaza D and owners Jack Lupo, Dale Goldstein, Brian Horowitz, Gary Axelrod and Michael Rauch with a foreclosure lawsuit in 2012. After the bank was sold, the loan was assigned to Florida Asset Resolution Group, owned by former bank parent company BBX Capital in Fort Lauderdale. The litigation concerns the 12,236-square-foot retail plaza on 1.2 acres. The interest-only mortgage was made for $2.7 million in 2008, but it has ballooned to over $5 million with the default interest rate.

Even after doling out discounts on electronics and clothes, retailers struggled to entice shoppers to Black Friday sales events, putting pressure on the industry as it heads into the final weeks of the holiday season, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Spending tumbled an estimated 11 percent over the weekend from a year earlier, the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation said yesterday. Consumers were unmoved by retailers’ aggressive discounts and longer Thanksgiving hours, raising concern that signs of recovery in recent months won’t endure. Consumer spending fell to $50.9 billion over the past four days, down from $57.4 billion in 2013, according to the NRF. It was the second year in a row that sales declined during the post-Thanksgiving Black Friday weekend.

Going-out-of-business sales started Friday at Alco Stores, a chain of nearly 200 general-merchandise discount retailers that cater to small communities in America’s heartland, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The impending closure of the stores — which sell everything from appliances and furniture to clothing and groceries — is likely to severely limit the shopping options for Alco customers. Most of the stores are located in towns of fewer than 5,000 residents, and Alco specifically targets areas not already serviced by Wal-Mart and other larger retailers. The 113-year-old business sought bankruptcy protection last month with plans to liquidate if it didn’t find a buyer willing to keep the stores open. This week, Alco said that a sale didn’t pan out, and it won a bankruptcy court’s approval to go through with the going-out-of-business plan.

Monarch Alternative Capital LP abandoned negotiations to take over a $140 million loan to RadioShack Corp. as the electronics retailer struggled to reach a deal with lenders on a turnaround plan, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Monarch, run by Michael Weinstock, backed out of talks it was leading with two other hedge funds to acquire the asset-backed senior loan and renegotiate the terms. The company continues to talk with the other funds and with other potential lenders. RadioShack is seeking to refinance the debt to loosen terms that may restrict the amount it can borrow under the loan in March. That would give the company time to implement a turnaround plan and avoid a cash crunch that management said in a Sept. 11 regulatory filing may lead to bankruptcy. The loan is part of a $585 million funding package arranged last month by RadioShack’s largest shareholder, Standard General LP, that gave the retailer enough cash to operate through the holiday season. Any deal to refinance the debt will be contingent on whether a key RadioShack lender, Salus Capital LLC, agrees to a company plan to close underperforming stores, one of the people said. Salus owns part of a $250 million, second-lien loan.

When Crumbs Bake Shop Inc. filed for bankruptcy this past summer and sold off the majority of its assets, the company thought it had put to rest a number of licensing agreements that gave third parties the right to sell baked goods under the Crumbs name, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported today. According to a bankruptcy judge's recent ruling, the sale didn't actually relinquish those rights, and the Crumbs bankruptcy estate can still earn royalties under the agreements. Now, the cupcake chain's new owners — a collaboration between TV personality Marcus Lemonis and Dippin' Dots owner Fischer Enterprises — have appealed the ruling to stop other companies from making money off the Crumbs brand.

Dahl's Foods Inc., an 83-year-old Des Moines-based grocery store chain, will disappear from the local landscape as a locally owned company, The Des Moines Register reported today. The 10-store chain filed a $41 million bankruptcy petition in federal court on Sunday asking that it be allowed to reorganize and sell its stores. The likely buyer will be its supplier or another grocery company. The company is also asking that the process be moved along quickly. Dahl's said yesterday that Kansas City, Kan.-based Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG) plans to buy Dahl's assets and rebrand the stores. AWG is a retailer-owned grocery cooperative and grocery distributor. Court filings show that AWG has offered to buy the chain's assets for a base price of $4.8 million, which could be adjusted depending on the value of inventory and other items. Under one scenario, one of AWG's co-op members could own the stores, with AWG funding the acquisition. AWG said that it plans to rebrand the remaining Dahl's stores and remodel and update the properties. The new brand was not identified.

Sears Holdings Corp. said that it is considering forming a real-estate investment trust that would hold 200 to 300 of its stores, as the struggling retailer continues to pursue ways to shore up its balance sheet, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Through a sale-leaseback deal, the company would continue to operate in the store locations, but the real estate would be sold to a newly formed REIT and shareholders would be given rights to purchase shares or equity stakes. The retailer said it would book “substantial proceeds” from such a move. Sears has been hemorrhaging cash as it reported losses that have rattled its supplier base. The company has recently sought to raise cash as the holiday season approaches, including selling $625 million in debt to owners of the company’s stock and taking a $400 million short-term loan backed by 25 of the company’s properties.

It has been three years since the last Borders store closed its doors, but that hasn’t stopped a group of jilted gift-card holders from continuing to fight for their unredeemed vouchers to be turned into cash, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. The group faced its latest setback on Wednesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit sided with two lower courts and ruled that the former customers waited too long to raise their claims for the unused gift cards. According to Borders, the former bookseller had 17.7 million unredeemed gift cards worth $210.5 million at the time it closed, dating back to when the first card was issued in 1998. Since January 2012, attorney Clinton Krislov has argued that Borders didn’t make enough of an effort to notify the gift-card holders that they had to act fast to use the cards once Borders entered chapter 11. Krislov said he plans to appeal last week’s decision by either requesting that the full appeals-court panel hear the case or by offering it up for the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration.

RadioShack has hired former Treasury Department adviser Harry J. Wilson to help with its turnaround efforts, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The struggling consumer electronics retailer said yesterday that Wilson will serve as chief revitalization officer, reporting to its board and CEO Joe Magnacca. Wilson is the founder and CEO of The Maeva Group. He previously served as a senior adviser in the Treasury Department and was a senior member of the Auto Task Force, which was responsible for the Treasury’s role in the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler. RadioShack warned in September that it might need to file for chapter 11 protection as it struggles to compete with online retailers.