With 20 Sears stores and seven Kmart locations announced as closing in July and August, the total number of stores in what was once one of the largest retail entities in the world will be reduced to 95 according to informed sources and the company’s own online job site.
Transformco, the holding company controlled by long-time Sears owner Edward Lampert, has been slowly but steadily reducing the number of locations under both brands since buying what was left of the former company out of bankruptcy in early 2019. This past November it said it was operating only 189 of the approximately 450 stores it took over but now that count has been reduced by half. (As recently as early June, a Forbes story estimated there were about 160 locations still open.)
Sources tracking the remaining stores, using information from the Transformco job website and other means, estimate after this summer round of closings there will be 60 full-line Sears and 35 Kmart stores remaining. Transformco also operates and in some cases owns units as part of a network of Sears-branded stores under the Hardware, Home Life and Auto Center names but it is unknown how many of these remain open.
Sears has repeatedly declined to provide any further information on its remaining store count, referring queries back to its November 2019 statement of 189 locations.
According to these sources, the following Sears locations are closing this month and in August: Wasilla, AK; Escondido, Hayward, Palmdale, Torrance and Yuba City, CA; Key West, FL; Kennesaw, GA; North Riverside, IL; Saugus, MA; Portland, ME; Rockaway and Hackensack, NJ; North Olmsted, OH; Arlington, Fort Worth, Houston (Shepherd), Laredo and San Antonio, TX; Alexandria, VA; and Madison, WI.
The seven Kmart locations scheduled to close this summer are: McKinleyville and Ramona, CA; Edgewater, MD; Minot, ND; West Lebanon, NH; and Columbia and Walnutport, PA.
In the meantime, Reuters reported last week that Sears is “exploring the sale of its home improvement business,” citing people familiar with the situation. The Sears Home Services business, which handles appliance repairs and home remodeling, could fetch $1 billion, the Reuters story quoted its sources as estimating, adding that Transformco declined to comment on the report.
Lampert paid $5.2 billion for what was the former Sears company and while freely stating he intended to monetize its assets wherever possible he did say he intended to continue to stay in the retail business, consistently sighting his desire to protect the approximately 45,000 workers the company employed at the time.
With less than 100 stores still in business, that head count would be expected to be significantly lower today.
Note: The situation on the remaining Sears and Kmart locations is a very fluid one with closings announced every week so this story is being updated to reflect new information as supplied by sources tracking this. One new update on Monday July 13 indicates that there are 35 Kmart stores still open, correcting the previous count of 34 and 95 stores in total between the two nameplates. On Sunday evening, July 12th, there were several other updates, including: an additional Sears closing in Hayward, CA; the state the New Lebanon store is in was originally incorrect, it is New Hampshire; and the Sears Outlet store brand name no longer exists.
The business of retailing is my specialty…and boy is it special. Plenty of good, bad and ugly to go around and my job, as it has been for most of my career as a
The business of retailing is my specialty…and boy is it special. Plenty of good, bad and ugly to go around and my job, as it has been for most of my career as a business journalist, is to try to sort it all out. I do so as a regular contributor to Forbes.com, as well as The Robin Report, Progressive Business Media and other media, plus my own blog, stupidbusiness.com. My regular commentaries have elicited both praise and scorn and I welcome them both equally. I expect to be doing this for the duration.