Bankruptcy Judge Signs Final Order Stipulating How RadioShack Store-Closing Sales Are to Be Run

RadioShack and its three liquidators will be required through March 31 to accept RadioShack gift cards that were “validly” issued before the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Feb. 5 (see 1502060023), U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Brendan Shannon said Friday in a final order authorizing RadioShack’s store-closing sales and stipulating how those sales are to be conducted. RadioShack’s liquidators are Hilco Merchant Resources, Gordon Brothers Retail Partners and Tiger Capital Group, the order said. RadioShack and the liquidators also must accept returns of merchandise sold before the fire sales in compliance with return policies that were in effect the date the merchandise was sold, provided that “the customer is not repurchasing the same item so as to take advantage of the sale price being offered” during the store liquidation sale, the order said. All sales of fire-sale merchandise will be “‘as is’ and final,” the order said. However, RadioShack and the liquidators must within seven days accept returns of merchandise with “latent" defects, and signs alerting consumers to that policy must be posted in the “cash register areas” of all participating stores, it said. It defined a product with a latent defect as one that “the lay customer could not reasonably determine was defective by visual inspection prior to purchase.” The order said RadioShack must maintain on its website a list of stores that are still open and directs the company and the liquidators to send copies of the order to all relevant state and local authorities within five days, including attorneys general and consumer watchdog agencies in the locales where stores remain open to conduct the liquidation sales.