THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2008

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Hollywood Video Closing Up Shop On Meacham

By TOM ROBB

Journal Reporter

Hollywood Video clerk John Beniacs is losing his job with the company for the second time in a year due to store closings.

Hollywood Video store locations in Elk Grove Village (925 Meacham Road) and Niles will close at the end of the month as part of a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization and its parent companies Hollywood Entertainment and Movie Gallery.

The company closed 500 locations in October and will close another 394 by the end of this month.

Beniacs said employees are being offered an extra dollar an hour to stay on during the liquidation.

Beniacs said there are eight "part time" employees at the Elk Grove Village location and said there are a similar number in Niles.

"They call us part time, they don't care unless you are a manager," said Beniacs.

Beniacs said he was a manager last year at a Hollywood Video store in Lombard.

When that store was closed last year, Beniacs was out of work for about two weeks until another manager transferred from Lombard to Elk Grove Village. Hollywood hired him back as a clerk.

KPMG is handling the property closing and sale of the Hollywood Video properties. KPMG Managing Director of Corporate Finance Matt Bordwin said all the 327 leased store locations will be sold at an auction on Friday, March 7.

Hollywood Entertainment spokeswoman Nikki Rose said the company is reorganizing a $150 million debt.

Bordwin said over 3,000 Hollywood Video locations will remain open nationwide.