United Furniture Warehouse, a Canadian-based 155-store discount chain, has decided to close its two Spokane stores and one in Moses Lake as part of a big consolidation of its struggling U.S. operations, company President John Volken says.


The stores here are located at 4630 E. Sprague in East Spokane and 551 E. Hawthorne Road on Spokanes North Side. The companys only other store in this area, at 406 E. Neider in Coeur dAlene, will remain open, Volken says.


United Furniture Warehouse plans to shut down 30 of its 55 stores in the U.S. over the next few months due to lagging sales, and the Spokane and Moses Lake stores are among six in Washington state that will close, he says. Most of the companys U.S. stores are in Washington, Oregon, and Utah.


The Journal reported in March that the retail chain, based in Coquitlam, British Columbia, was considering closing one or more stores here, after having closed one in Oregon and one in Utah the previous month.


As a whole, we are committed to the U.S. Weve been doing business there for almost 14 years, Volken said when interviewed then.


He added, though, that a sharp drop-off in business immediately after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a negligible rebound since then had forced the company to explore a variety of financial options for its U.S. operations, including a possible Chapter 11 reorganization filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Reached again last week, Volken said the company probably wont file for bankruptcy protection.


United Furniture Warehouse caught the attention of the Washington state attorney generals Spokane office early this year when it began displaying large banners on its stores here that said Store closing in large, bold print and Select locations in smaller, less conspicuous type. The state agency asked the company to revise its advertising after learning that the company had no definite plansat that timeto close any of its stores here, and the company complied.