Bankrupt gas station abruptly closes 13 ’underperforming’ locations and says ‘entire business enterprise in jeopardy’

A bankrupt gas station owner abruptly closed 13 branch locations.

Court documents say the gas pumps and adjacent grocery stores lost money.

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Mega Consumers Cooperative closed 13 gas stations in Wisconsin that were underperforming.

The company, which has a total of 31 locations in American Dairyland, operates most of its gas stations under the Holiday banner.

Mega filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 1, according to documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.

A total of 13 stores closed on September 5, while the company’s remaining 18 stores remain open for now.

Mega closed its 13 underperforming locations because they had negative cash flows.

Keeping it open would have “put the entire company at risk of collapse,” the court papers say.

Mega has temporarily employed all employees affected by the closures.

The company hopes that the funds saved by closing the underperforming gas stations will be enough to maintain the remaining locations.

Hit the brakes

Mega is just the latest gas station owner to go bankrupt.

A total of 19 Pilot-branded gas stations were closed in nine states last month.

This came after the owner, Mountain Express Oil (MEX), suspended all operations in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

MEX had previously missed payments to gasoline suppliers, causing some gas station operators to close their locations.

HARD CONDITIONS

But it’s not just gas stations that are feeling the effects of the so-called retail apocalypse this year.

Well-known retailers have also continued to be affected by waves of store closures since the pandemic.

Bed Bath and Beyond closed all 360 stores in July after 50 years in business.

The once dominant wholesale market now only exists online.

Competitor Tuesday Morning was unable to recover from its second bankruptcy filing in three years and closed 200 locations.

And there are only a few weeks left until Kmart opens its second remaining store in the continental US.