96 more Sears and Kmart stores closing; $250 million lifeline secured

[retailisking]

Amid reports of carriers refusing to deliver merchandise for nonpayment...
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sears-financing-exclusive/exclusive-sears-says-it-has-secured-a-250-million-lifeline-will-close-96-stores-idUSKBN1XH2OL

Here is the list of closing stores
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/11/07/kmart-sears-store-closings-96-stores-set-shutter-february-2020/2521653001/

[Planet Retail]

Wow. Kmart will have less than a hundred stores. Quite an achievement from a chain that once had more than 2,000 stores at its peak.

[retailisking]

Kmart is down to 60 stores. There will be 182 remaining full-line stores overall after this round.

[retailfan]

sad really   hate to see this  but of course  Indiana has lost all of its stores after that last round of closings. They must have somthing thay want to feed more money into the company seems like they should just hang it up as much as i hate to say it. Kmart is now smaller then Ames was as a regional retailer  Not sure how they can survive spread out the way they are.

[Everything Community]

Luckily, the Kmart store in Holyoke, MA (the one I went to this past June) and two of the Sears stores in CT (including my closest in Manchester, CT) made the cut, so they will remain open for now!

[retailisking]

The Kmart in West Lebanon, NH made the cut, too. It's one of their "Cross Merch" stores featuring Sears products. Has anyone been to this one or another of their Cross Merch stores?

[Zayre88]

The Kmart in West Lebanon, NH made the cut, too. It's one of their "Cross Merch" stores featuring Sears products. Has anyone been to this one or another of their Cross Merch stores?

Never been to that one but after Salem and Hooksett will be closed, remaining Kmart stores are way too far away for me.

[TheFugitive]

Guess I can take that points reward card out of my wallet now, eh?

[jaredski09]

The Kmart in West Lebanon, NH made the cut, too. It's one of their "Cross Merch" stores featuring Sears products. Has anyone been to this one or another of their Cross Merch stores?

I was just in the West Lebanon, NH Kmart last week. They replaced the inside “Garden Shop” area on the left side of the store a few years back with a “Sears Appliances” section (store within a store). It uses the old Garden Shop entrances and has a large Sears Appliances sign above the outside entrance. It has a large selection of appliances... it’s probably the size of a normal appliance section at a mainline Sears store. They also staff it with dedicated appliances staff.  They actually put the Sears Appliances section in this store shortly after the Sears Hometown Store closed in a neighboring plaza.

As for the rest of the Kmart in West Lebanon, it’s still clean and newer looking (was completely renovated in 2012 after flooding badly damaged the store). The current stock is dwindling though, and there are quite a few bare shelves and repetitive stock, especially in the Grocery/Household/Health/Beauty sections. It was actually quite busy when I went in and they had like 6-7 cashiers working (which is surprising because they normally only have 2-3 register ever open). They actually had some very good deals on their existing stock, and the items I priced checked were scanning in 50-60% off the price tags on the shelves. This Kmart has always done well partly because it benefits from cross-border tax-free shopping from Vermont (it’s a 1/2 mile away from the VT border).

Also, the last Sears in Vermont at the University Mall in South Burlington is included in the current list of closings. It’s a 2 floor, 111,000 square foot store with a dedicated parking garage that was built in the late 1990’s after relocating from another space in Burlington. There’s also a separate Sears Auto Center that’s located on the opposite side of the Sears/UMall parking lot (about a 1/4 mile away from the Sears store). The last Kmarts in Vermont closed in Bennington in 2018 and in South Burlington in 2016.

[AmesNewington]

Luckily, the Kmart store in Holyoke, MA (the one I went to this past June) and two of the Sears stores in CT (including my closest in Manchester, CT) made the cut, so they will remain open for now!

Same two stores closest to me. How was the Holyoke Kmart when you went? I've been to the Manchester CT Sears several times this year after Meriden closed. I like the store. 

[Crazybangles]

Oh boo hoo. Just close em all.

[retailisking]

I was just in the West Lebanon, NH Kmart last week. They replaced the inside “Garden Shop” area on the left side of the store a few years back with a “Sears Appliances” section (store within a store). It uses the old Garden Shop entrances and has a large Sears Appliances sign above the outside entrance. It has a large selection of appliances... it’s probably the size of a normal appliance section at a mainline Sears store. They also staff it with dedicated appliances staff.  They actually put the Sears Appliances section in this store shortly after the Sears Hometown Store closed in a neighboring plaza.

As for the rest of the Kmart in West Lebanon, it’s still clean and newer looking (was completely renovated in 2012 after flooding badly damaged the store). The current stock is dwindling though, and there are quite a few bare shelves and repetitive stock, especially in the Grocery/Household/Health/Beauty sections. It was actually quite busy when I went in and they had like 6-7 cashiers working (which is surprising because they normally only have 2-3 register ever open). They actually had some very good deals on their existing stock, and the items I priced checked were scanning in 50-60% off the price tags on the shelves. This Kmart has always done well partly because it benefits from cross-border tax-free shopping from Vermont (it’s a 1/2 mile away from the VT border).

The West Lebanon Kmart had a Little Caesars Pizza Station at one point; is it obvious where it used to be?

[jaredski09]

The West Lebanon Kmart had a Little Caesars Pizza Station at one point; is it obvious where it used to be?

Yes it’s very obvious where it used to be... it was actually open until a few years ago! I know they had trouble staffing the Little Caesar’s and towards the end it had limited hours. Now they just stock the area with extra stock (lots of paper towels, toilet paper, and bulk sized items).

[TRU7536]

I know the website was down for a few days, but Sears in Danbury will be closing in 2020.

https://kicks1055.com/sears-experiment-unsuccessful-danbury-store-to-close/

[AmesNewington]

I know the website was down for a few days, but Sears in Danbury will be closing in 2020.

https://kicks1055.com/sears-experiment-unsuccessful-danbury-store-to-close/

Wow. After Danbury closes, there will be only the Manchester Sears store which I have been going to this past year and the 2 Outlet stores in Newington and West Haven. I doubt the company will exist past 2020 (but who knows with Eddie), however, the town of Newington states that the Sears Outlet store has signed a new long term lease. They have also leased unused space in the same building to Amazon for a small logistics center. I'm not sure if Eddie has the Outlet stores back in his possession at this time, but I was surprised to hear of the new lease.

I'm wondering what sets the Manchester store from the rest of them that closed in the past few years. It mirrors the other locations I've visited. Nothing too extraordinary. I know Eddie's decisions haven't made any sense and he is closing profitable locations at this point, but I still don't understand why Manchester has survived to being the last full line store in the state. They must be doing something right. Maybe they do a decent appliance business. I did a lot of shopping there. The area has a lot of competition and the mall has JCPenney and Macys as their neighbors. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

[Brammy]

Of course it doesn't mean anything, I read somewhere that Manchester is the best performing Sears store in the district. What stores make up the district? Your guess is as good as mine.

[jaredski09]

I just left the Sears South Burlington, Vermont location that’s currently in store closing mode, and according to signs posted at the Sears entrances,  the Sears Auto Center will be staying open and not shutting down when the actual store closes. It’s located about a 1/4 mile away from the actual Sears store, but still on the mall property the Sears is on. They must do decent business at the Auto Center to keep it open past the Sears closing date.

I was also just in the West Lebanon, NH Kmart that’s not closing, and the place was very busy with holiday shoppers. The shelves are getting very bare though! It looks like they are barely stocking the store. It seemed every aisle I went down had half the items out of stock. They’ve pretty much eliminated the electronics section and only had a handful of TV’s left. They also covered up the closed Little Caesar’s Pizza Station with a big white tarp and threw a bunch of empty fixtures in the seating area.

[AmesNewington]

Of course it doesn't mean anything, I read somewhere that Manchester is the best performing Sears store in the district. What stores make up the district? Your guess is as good as mine.

But does best performers mean anything to Eddie? The Kmart in Watertown was a profitable location, yet that one closed. Vernon was too, and they closed too. I'm glad to see Manchester survive yet again, however, this will be the only full line Sears/Kmart store in the state after February. I suppose it being a good performer in a decent mall prompted the company to make as much money from it until they go under.