Pawn America, the largest pawnbroker in the upper Midwest, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which it says is part of a reorganization plan.

“This is an unfortunate circumstance,” said president Brad Rixmann in a statement released after Wednesday’s filing. “While we will have to make tough decisions going forward, Pawn America will emerge stronger and better able to compete in the marketplace.”

The bankruptcy filing says Pawn America owes between $10 million and $50 million to creditors. Its largest single debt is a bank loan for furniture, fixtures and equipment for its Inver Grove Heights store, which opened in 2012.

The Burnsville-based company began with one store in Robbinsdale in 1991 and now has 10 in the Twin Cities and 13 in the rest of Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. The stores remain open.

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Trump disputes health officials, sees mass vaccinations soon On St. Paul’s East Side, Pawn America experimented with a new direction, opening a store in 2013 called PA Exchange. The idea was to segregate the financial/pawn elements of the store — with all their connotations — to showcase the retail sales floor that resells used goods at marked-down prices.

In an age of eBay, Craigslist and a rising roster of used-goods retailers, Rixmann hoped PA Exchange was its ticket into new communities and reaching a broader public, but the store recently closed.