RUBIO’S HAS AGREEMENT TO REPAY ITS CREDITORS

It’s roughly 10 percent of what they’re owed by the Carlsbad-based taco chain

As Rubio’s Restaurants prepares to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy, its attorneys announced Monday that the company and its lender have reached an agreement to repay unsecured creditors, although it will be a fraction of the money owed them.

The announcement comes just two weeks before a bankruptcy court judge in

Delaware will be asked to approve a reorganization plan by Rubio’s, which expects to emerge from bankruptcy by the end of the year.

Under the settlement disclosed Monday and negotiated over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, creditors, who currently number in the hundreds, would collectively recover as much as $1 million. That represents “a 10-cent recovery, a little less, a little more,” said Gregg Galardi, one of the attorneys representing Rubio’s. The agreement with the formal committee representing creditors calls for $650,000 to be put aside for repayments, plus up to $350,000 in savings

day spending will happen between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, when bargain-hunting shoppers finally pull the trigger, Adobe Analytics said in a statement Monday.

“Consumers will likely take advantage of the best discounted items today like TVs, toys and computers before price levels start creeping back up throughout the rest of the season,” said Taylor Schreiner, director of Adobe Digital Insights.

All that spending in a compressed time means that any service interruptions on Cyber Monday — slow websites, payment processing problems, shop

ping carts that vanish before checkout — could be painful for companies.

“Even large retailers could be crippled with the demand,” said Mario Ciabarra, chief executive at Quantum Metric, which helps online retailers f ix website problems. “Every minute counts, and every customer counts.”

There were already signs that some online stores were struggling to handle the load.

Sites for prominent retailers had 39 percent more errors on Black Friday than they did a year ago, according to Quantum Metric.

U.S. shoppers spent $9 billion online on Black Friday, according to Adobe Inc., missing its forecast of $10.3 billion, indicating shoppers reacted to deals earlier in the holiday season and warnings about potential shipping problems in De

cember.

This year, retailers have been enticing people to shop earlier in the season to avoid capacity problems.

But Cyber Monday probably will still be the peak, because many shoppers are conditioned to hold off on big purchases in anticipation of price cuts.

So far, Cyber Monday deals that have been announced aren’t much better than Black Friday deals, said Kristin McGrath, editor at BlackFriday.com, which monitors web deals.

Harking back to traditional door-buster Black Friday tactics, many digital shops are likely to offer eyepopping discounts on popular products that usually sell out quickly to attract people to their site, hoping they linger and load up shopping carts with other things.

Shoppers may find the net result is underwhelming.

“Amazon is offering the exact same deals on Echo speakers and some other devices as they did on Black Friday,” McGrath said. “Cyber Monday is not really the day to wait for anymore.”

Another reason that discounts may not have been deep on Monday is that customers would be mad if retailers that told them to shop earlier this year saved their best deals for Cyber Monday, said Andrew Lipsman, analyst at EMarketer.

The upshot for retailers is the holiday season could be more profitable.

“There’s more room this year for retailers to take back some margin than in previous years,” Lipsman said.

“Shoppers have heard about shipping problems and tight supplies, so if they see a good deal, they’re going to take it. There’s no reason to be greedy,” he said.