Sears Is Closing Even More Stores, Going From 3,900 to Less Than 30

February 6, 2021

Horizontal angled shot of the windows of a store plastered with going out of business signs — WendellandCarolyn / iStock

As the cumulative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and months of lockdowns continue to batter the economy, there's more bad news in the world of shopping, this time regarding one of the oldest American names in retail. Sears and Kmart stores are experiencing yet another round of closures, with branches of both brands shuttering across the country throughout the coming months. To see if yours is on the chopping block, read on, and for more on the latest news from retailers, check out This Beloved Furniture Chain Is Closing All But 1 of Its Stores.

Both Sears and Kmart are owned by parent company Transformco, which is closing at least 13 branches of Sears and seven Kmart stores by mid-April, USA Today reports. Several of the closure announcements were made via the individual stores' Facebook pages rather than an official statement from the company. "We were gearing up to bring you another season of Kmart fun, but unfortunately that was not in the cards for us this go around," one Kmart in Silver Springs, Maryland wrote.

At the start of 2010, Sears had more than 3,900 stores. According to Forbes, this had shrunk to 489 at the start of 2019, and at the end of Jan. 2021, there were just 36 department stores left, along with 30 Kmarts, down from 360 in 2019.

Originally founded in 1886 as the R.W.Sears Watch Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company first sold watches by mail order. Seven years later, it became Sears, Roebuck and Company, going on to pioneer mail order delivery to even the most remote, rural locations in the country. Sears remained one of America's biggest retailers until the 1980s, having diversified into everything from automobile repair to real estate. In 2005, Sears was purchased by Kmart, which was founded in 1899, for $12 billion.

But even before the current COVID-inspired crisis, analysts were sounding the alarm over Sears' ill-fated future. In 2017, the company saw store closures, job losses, and executive departures, as well as Sears suing two of its suppliers. The following year, the company filed for bankruptcy. Even with those closures and changes, the prognosis seemed bleak. Ben Unglesbee of Retail Dive wrote of how "customers see understaffed and poorly maintained stores, while analysts and other observers see a company undergoing a slow motion liquidation outside of bankruptcy." He added that "the company still faces long-term liquidity challenges that show no signs of abating. To put it bluntly: It's getting harder and harder to see how this could possibly end well."

As Chris Isidore at CNN recently put it, "With no viable exit-strategy, both Sears and Kmart are slowly, quietly dying."

Customers writing online reviews of Sears have reported stores with entire floors closed off, banks of escalators switched off, and once-full shelves standing empty.

But this is bad news not just for Sears and Kmart and the many customers who love the stores. As Unglesbee writes, such a big player leaving the market has a damaging effect on the environment around it. "As Sears quietly disappears, more mall anchor spaces go dark. While a competitor closing a store can free up market share for rivals, it also hurts the overall health of a shopping center," he explained. And with shopping malls already struggling badly after a year of reduced footfall, little tourism, and mandatory shutdowns, this is another dark day for the retail landscape in America.

Read on to see which Sears and Kmarts are closing or have closed recently, according to USA Today, and for more on the latest in business, check out This Legendary Brand Is Closing Its Last Remaining Stores.

Read the original article on Best Life.