By Joe Bachman/Hub City Times staff

YORK, PA – The Marshfield Younkers location inside Marshfield Mall is one of the stores to fall victim, as the Bon-Ton chain enters liquidation.

The department store chain that owns Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, and Younkers was forced into filing for bankruptcy protection earlier in 2018, after racking up enormous debt while suffering from heavy online sales competition.

Liquidation was expected to begin as early as April 20, with a final closing date of Aug. 31.

The company employs roughly 23,000 individuals over 212 locations in 23 states. Two firms were recently put at the head of the liquidation process for all locations. CEO Bill Tracy made the following announcement in a Bon-Ton Stores news release, “While we are disappointed by this outcome and tried very hard to identify bidders interested in operating the business as a going concern, we are committed to working constructively with the winning bidder to ensure an orderly wind-down of operations that minimizes the impact of this development on our associates, customers, vendors, and the communities we serve.”

All Bon-Ton credit cards will no longer be accepted as a form of payment in-store and online, and all accounts will be closed as of June 26.