Glen Burnie, MD Kmart to close

[catsnap1972]

Sears Holdings Corp. plans to close its K-Mart store in Glen Burnie by mid-November, laying off nearly 80 employees, as the national discount retailer continues to cut costs to withstand a drop in consumer spending.

The store at 6716 Governor Ritchie Highway will be shuttered by Nov. 8, when 78 employees are to be laid off, the company reported to the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR). The notice was posted Tuesday on DLLR's Web site.

K-Mart is one of the anchor tenants at Chesapeake Square, a strip shopping center across Ritchie Highway from the Glen Burnie Mall. The 213,715-square-foot shopping center, which also includes a Mars supermarket, is managed by Fedder Management Corp. of Owings Mills.

It's just one of 22 K-Mart stores Sears Holdings (Nasdaq: SHLD) has marked for closing as its fortunes fall in the ongoing recession.

Sears Holdings spokeswoman Kimberly Freely said the stores are being closed as their leases come up for expiration, part of an ongoing evaluation of each of Sears Holdings real estate deal nationwide.

Performance and sales volume is taken into consideration, she said, but so is information such as lease renewal options and terms. She declined to say what information Sears Holdings looked at in deciding to close the Glen Burnie store.

On Aug. 20, the company reported a $94 million loss for its second quarter ended July 31.

"While the overall retail market remains difficult and its impact is reflected in our results, we continue to take actions to increase the efficiency of our operations," W. Bruce Johnson, interim CEO of Sears Holdings, said in a statement released Aug. 20 along with its quarterly earnings report.

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2009/08/31/daily28.html

[BillyGr]

What they neglected to mention is that the Mars supermarket in the plaza has been closed for "remodeling" - apparently for a couple years now, with no sign of anything happening.

Add this to a second Mars just a couple blocks away and a Weis a couple miles down the road that closed last fall, and the area seems to be losing a lot of stores lately (and not the "expected" ones where the chain went out).