Strauss Auto on Bergen Street in Harrison, NJ | Photo: Michelle Clark-McCrary

During a sequence of events that occurred quite literally overnight, Strauss Discount Auto filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy and shuttered the doors of over 45 locations including its Bergen Street location here in Harrison. Despite the seeming swiftness of the store closures, according to a Bloomberg Business report, this is the auto chain’s fourth time filing Chapter 11 and yesterday’s filing in a Newark court was its third in six years.

Strauss’ company attorney Kenneth A. Rosen, of Lowenstein Sandler, told the Newark Star-Ledger that the closures were temporary; while Brooklyn-based news blog Sheepshead Bites reported that the 46 stores Strauss closed in New Jersey resulted in the layoff of 700 workers. The company’s website, which has been shut down, directs customers to the same 800-number listed on the signs papering the windows of the now vacant stores. Employees were instructed to call their local supervisors.  When The Daily Harrison called 800-787-4554, we received an answering service instructing us to call at 9am tomorrow morning.

The company, which was founded in Newark in 1919, does not seem likely to rise from the ashes this time around.