Value City will liquidate

Value City filed for bankruptcy, and has announced it will liquidate. The chain had about a hundred stores a year ago, but most had already closed. The remaining 37 will be closing between now and January.

I was struck by this item in the article:

The chain's ownership changed in January, when Retail Ventures paid a group of private-equity investors $500,000 to take over the rest of the retailer's stores.

They paid the buyer to take it?

The closure does not affect Value City Furniture Stores, which is a separate operation