Less Service, Less Merchandise?

Service Merchandise, the Nashville-based catalog retailer, announced that it would cut about 23 percent of its workforce as it tries to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection. That cost-cutting amounts to roughly 1750 employees. The 218-store chain also said it would consolidate its field operations and reorganize its jewelry repair service. The retailers, which filed for Chapter 11 in March 1999, said nothing about plans to close stores or to halt its chain-wide renovation plans. During the summer, it announced the opening of a new prototype store in Antioch, Tenn., and said it would be renovating 70 more in 2000, 80 in 2001 and the rest of the chain thereafter.