Thursday, February 23, 2012

More store closings...

(Photo from the New Ulm Journal) One of the Kmart stores to be shuttered, this one in Minnesota.
Continuing the recurrent theme for the past, oh, decade... declining store sales and more store closings. Another 13 or so Kmarts and 14 or so Sears since the new year http://www.searsmedia.com/tools/02232012_close.html (note that at the bottom of the list are 11 stores being closed but listed under sales to General Property; these 11 stores were sold for $270 million)
And in perhaps a sign of desperation for cash, some financial scheming with spinning off Sears Hometown (the mostly rural/small town appliance and tool stores that were typically 5-10k sq ft, smaller than most drug stores) and Sears Outlet to raise some money. http://searsholdings.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=16310&item=122418

Finally, all of The Great Indoor stores will be closed - locations currently remain in Chandler and Scottsdale, Ariz.; Lone Tree, Colo.; Lombard, Ill.; Gaithersburg, Md.; Novi, Mich.; Columbus, Ohio; Farmers Branch and Houston, Texas. These large indoor stores were first opened in 1998 with plans originally for 200 of them, but only around 10% of that number were ever opened.

And to conclude, the usual decreases in same store sales and total revenue. For the quarter, Kmart comps were down 2.7% and for the year down 1.4%, with SHLD revenue for the year down $1.1 billion. http://searsholdings.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=16310&item=122417 Is bankruptcy/liquidation possible in the future?

1 comment:

  1. I'm glad that they are closing. After the bad experience I had with the Big KMart in Gastonia, NC, I promised that I would never shop there again. The return policy is just ridiculous. I made the mistake of losing my receipt. They would gladly take the 15 dollar outfit back but only give me credit of 8 dollars, and I was expected to pick out another outfit for the same price & pay the 7 dollar difference. Terrible service, terrible policy.

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