A vacant Sears store sits idly at Maryland’a White Marsh Mall on February 8, 2021
Michael Lisicky
Sears continues on its path to the retail graveyard. Late Friday night, Transformco, Sears’ parent company, quietly posted new “temporary store closing” employment positions at five of its namesake stores. It won’t be long before Sears will run out of more locations to close.
These five new closures are on top of the eleven stores the company announced just two weeks ago. It leaves Sears with only 28 remaining department stores throughout the country. (The company will not confirm an exact number.) It’s a sad decline for what was once “the World’s Largest Retailer.”
It’s highly unlikely that this will be the last round of closures. It’s unknown how this iconic brand can successfully compete and continue as a brick-and-mortar retailer. The stores that have avoided liquidation sales remain poorly stocked with little customer foot traffic.
The large Sears store at Minnesota’s Mall of America as shown on October 29, 2019, announced its … [+]
Michael Lisicky
The five stores scheduled to close are located in Long Beach, California, Thornton, Colorado, Chicago Ridge, Illinois, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Brockton, Massachusetts. Store closing sales are expected to commence next Wednesday.
The Long Beach, California Sears, at the Los Altos Shopping Center (also known as the Los Altos Marketcenter), is located in a building that formerly housed a Broadway department store. Sears acquired the Long Beach location after several Los Angeles-based Broadway stores were sold and closed, after an acquisition by Federated Department Stores.
Sears felt that the Long Beach area was a perfect fit for a new store. The retailer adopted a plan to focus on “ethnic communities.” The company based future success on “appeal to Latino, Asian American, and African American shoppers.”
The Long Beach store marked the retailer’s 31st location in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, its most lucrative market. Its closing leaves the Los Angeles area with just four locations, for now.
A Sears sign at the Los Altos Shopping Center in Long Beach, California.
Moment Editorial/Getty Images
The Thornton, Colorado store still displays the Sears Grand nameplate on its exterior. Sears Grand dates from a new off-mall superstore concept the retailer adopted in 2003. The Thornton store opened in 2005.
Sears Grand was meant to be a little bit of Kohl’s, Walmart
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, and Lowes all wrapped up under one roof. A former vice president jubilantly stated at one store opening, “We’ve got the refrigerators and [now] we’ve got the milk.”
Sears was unable to find a consistent strategy and merchandise mix for its Sears Grand stores. After Kmart acquired Sears in 2004, many Sears Grand stores were little more than rebranded and refurbished Kmart stores. Even though Sears Grand brought some fresh new ideas to the stodgy and stale retailer, many analysts predicted that it was “too little, too late” for the company.
By 2014, most Sears Grand locations closed or, in some cases, converted back to Kmarts. The Thornton, Colorado store is now little more than a mid-2000’s symbol of lost hope and direction for the doomed retailer.
The Sears Grand store, located at the Larkridge Shopping Center in Thornton, Colorado. This store … [+]
SEARS ARCHIVE
Sears opened its Chicago Ridge Mall store, on the outskirts of the Windy City, in 1981. In addition to a 25-bay auto center, photo studio, and optical department, Chicago Ridge offered a new Sears Financial Center. Sears was banking on the fact that customers would want to shop for clothing and Craftsman tools, purchase Allstate
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insurance, invest with Dean Witter Reynolds, and browse available homes with Coldwell Banker all in one location. All were subsidiaries of the company.
As competition intensified and sales dropped, Sears decided to focus on its retail business. In 1992, it divested its financial service divisions and ended its catalogue business. It even sold off its iconic Sears Tower headquarters building.
After the Chicago Ridge store closes, only one location will remain in Chicagoland. This store will also be the sole remaining Sears in the entire state.
A Sears in Richmond, Virginia follows the final prototype store design for the retail company.
Michael Lisicky
The Baton Rouge and Brockton stores marked a late 90s strategy to invest in shopping mall store development. These new Sears stores were uniform in design, with open floor plans and an exterior tower. Many of these new locations seemed out of place as they anchored new wings at long established centers.
The Baton Rouge store opened in 1997 as part of the new Mall of Louisiana, the largest shopping complex in the state. Its closure erases the presence of a Sears department store in the entire state.
The Brockton Sears simply attached itself onto the distressed and aging Westgate Mall in 2000. It was part of a redevelopment plan that also included an expanded and updated Macy’s
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store, which has since closed.
The Security Square Sears in Maryland as seen on October 2, 2019.
Michael Lisicky
It’s unknown which locations will be next up on the company’s hit list. A request for comment or confirmation from Sears and its parent, Transformco, went unanswered.
It’s never been clearer that Sears is winding down. It’s a damaged retail brand, a shell of its former self. And it no longer follows the company’s mantra of 1982. “Because today, the best place for your future should be with the friends you can trust. At Sears.”