Merrillville Carson’s Store to Close

Another Carson’s department store in Indiana will soon close. In a notice to the state, the store’s parent, Wisconsin-based The Bon-Ton Stores Inc., says nearly 140 employees at its Merrillville location will be out of work in June as the company continues through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

The company filed for bankruptcy in February and announced it was closing five Indiana stores in Indianapolis, Anderson, Columbus, Elkhart and Marion. More than 300 jobs were affected in those closures, which Bon-Ton said were part of its "store rationalization program."

The Merrillville closure is expected to be permanent and the first found of layoffs is set for June 5.

The Bon-Ton Stores announced last month it is in "active discussions with interested parties" for a bid to acquire the company in a bankruptcy court-supervised sale. The company says there is no guarantee that an acquisition will happen, but it will conduct an auction April 9 and a court hearing to approve a sale is scheduled for April 13.