Jan. 28--A furniture store will temporarily fill the space left vacant by Value City Department Store at Fairlane Village mall.

North Carolina-based Nationwide Furniture Sales will use the space to sell furniture for a month or two during tax season, a company representative who refused to give his last name said Tuesday.

Heather Stine, Fairlane Village's director of marketing, said the store is scheduled to open Feb. 8.

The representative said he could not provide much information without contacting his company headquarters but said the business has been successful in other Pennsylvania locations, including malls in Lewisburg and Bloomsburg.

"We have been doing this for a few years now," the representative said. "We bring truckloads of furniture up here from North Carolina and set up in malls during tax season."

The company placed a classified ad looking for part-time workers in the weekend edition of The Republican-Herald, and about 80 people responded to the ad, he said.

Interviews for positions at the store began Monday.

"We don't know at this point how many people we will hire," he said. "It will be a few to start and then we will see how business goes. The jobs would be mostly assisting customers."

He said the amount of sales would dictate how long the store would stay open in the mall.

"It depends on business," he said.

Value City closed in late November, putting 49 people out of work and leaving the 80,000-square-foot anchor space open.

The department store was one of 37 in the chain to close.

The decision was made by Columbus, Ohio-based VCHI Acquisition Co., which acquired 81 percent ownership interest of Value City Department Stores from its previous owner, Retail Ventures Inc., also of Columbus.

Value City moved into the former Gee Bee Department Store site in 1993 at Fairlane Village after acquiring the 17-store chain.

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