Closing sales at Boscov's stores at Monroeville Mall and South Hills Village could start next week as the department store chain moves to shed those locations as part of its bankruptcy restructuring plan.

"They are great stores, with great people in them," CEO Ken Lakin said Monday after the Reading-based, family-owned company filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11.

"We did not hit our sales plan there. It takes more than a year or two to ramp up in a new market, and the banks in the trade had no patience for that in the current economic conditions."

Boscov's said in its court filing early yesterday it would immediately close 10 underperforming stores of the 49 it operates across Pennsylvania and in five other mid-Atlantic states. Later, the company issued a list that includes the South Hills and Monroeville locations -- both former Kaufmann's -- and five others acquired two years ago from Federated Department Stores Inc., now Macy's.

Two older Boscov's stores, at Beaver Valley Mall in Monaca and Clearview Mall in Butler, will remain open.

Lakin said the Monroeville and South Hills stores to be closed each employ about 140 workers. "If they are capable of getting to a nearby store," he said of the workers, "we will consider placing them there."

Boscov's listed $538 million in assets and $479 million in debts as of May 3 in its petition filed with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del. The retailer said it would borrow up to $250 million from lenders led by Bank of America Corp. to help with the bankruptcy restructuring process.

Reports of financial problems at Boscov's have circulated for more than a week. Sales are down, some suppliers have stopped making deliveries to stores, and the company cut about 200 positions from its central office and 10 to 20 at each store.

Lakin and other company leaders blame the downturn in the housing market and higher food, energy and gasoline prices for causing consumers to cut way back on discretionary spending. More than a dozen retailers have filed for bankruptcy in the past year including Mervyn's LLC, with 177 department stores, Goody's Family Clothing Inc., Linens n' Things and Sharper Image Group.

Boscov's, founded in 1911 in Reading, calls itself the nation's largest family-owned full-service department store, with 9,500 employees overall and $1.3 billion in annual sales.

The chain plans to clear out $34 million in merchandise at its closing sales. It's seeking court approval for an auction procedure to choose a liquidation firm to help with the process.

The sales could start by Aug. 15 and run through October, said Lakin, who took control of the company shortly before the 2006 expansion, when his father and uncle retired.

Retail analyst Burt P.