Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
The retail apocalypse continues as Sears closes another 46 stores. Last year, hundreds of stores closed, and this year, even more shops have been scheduled to shut their doors for good. Strangely, Sears is closing their stores right before Christmas. 33 Sears stores and 13 Kmarts will cease doing business in November.
Are your local Sears and K-Mart stores closing?
Are the newly named stores that are on the chopping block in your area? If so, liquidation sales begin next week.
- Kmart 935 Sweetwater Road Spring Valley CA
- Kmart 1075 Shaw Avenue Clovis CA
- Kmart 3625 East 18th Street Antioch CA
- Kmart 6310 W 3rd Street Los Angeles CA
- Kmart 589 Bridgeport Avenue Milford CT
- Kmart 301 College Square Newark DE
- Kmart 3231 Chicago Road Steger IL
- Kmart 11 South Kings HWY 61 Cape Girardeau MO
- Kmart 2308 Highway 45 N Columbus MS
- Kmart 605 Old Country Road Riverhead NY
- Kmart 440 NW Burnside Road Gresham OR
- Kmart 101 Great Teays Blvd Scott Depot WV
- Kmart 2150 South Douglas HWY Gillette WY
- Sears^ Flagstaff Mall, 4800 N US HWY 89 Flagstaff AZ
- Sears Capitola Mall, 4015 Capitola Road Santa Cruz CA
- Sears† 2424 Highway 6 And 50 Grand Junction CO
- Sears 2266 University Square Mall Tampa – University FL
- Sears† 1625 NW 107th Avenue Doral / Miami FL
- Sears^ Coastland Ctr, 2000 9th Street N Naples FL
- Sears^ Oglethorpe Mall, 7810 Abercorn St Savannah GA
- Sears† 2860 Cumberland Mall Atlanta GA
- Sears† 100 Mall Blvd Ste 300 Brunswick GA
- Sears^ 1631 E Empire Street Bloomington IL
- Sears* 4201 Coldwater Road Fort Wayne IN
- Sears 3000 Mall Road Florence KY
- Sears† 1914 Hammond Square Drive Hammond LA
- Sears* 50 Holyoke Street Holyoke MA
- Sears^ Silver City Galleria Taunton MA
- Sears† 1250 Jackson Xing I-94 Jackson MI
- Sears* 4601 Glenwood Avenue Raleigh – Crabtree NC
- Sears* 77 Rockingham Park Boulevard Salem NH
- Sears* 1500 South Willow Street Manchester NH
- Sears† 4409 Black Horse Pike Mays Landing NJ
- Sears* 200 Eastview Mall Victor NY
- Sears* 578 Aviation Road Queensbury / Glen Falls NY
- Sears 1400 Union Turnpike New Hyde Park NY
- Sears 2700 Miamisburg Centerville Road Dayton OH
- Sears* 9505 Colerain Avenue Cincinnati – Northgate OH
- Sears† 11800 SE 82nd Avenue Happy Valley / Portland OR
- Sears† 400 Memorial City Way Houston – Memorial TX
- Sears* Post Oak Mall College Station – Bryan TX
- Sears 7453 S Plaza Center Drive West Jordan UT
- Sears 12000 Fair Oaks Mall Fairfax VA
- Sears† 8800 NE Vancouver Mall Drive Vancouver WA
- Sears† 4720 Golf Road Eau Claire WI
- Sears Valley View Mall, 4200 US HWY 16 La Crosse WI
Additionally, the Sears Auto Center at these locations will close in the following time frame:
^ Late August 2018
* Late September 2018
† Late October 2018(source)
How Sears is trying to survive
In a struggle to stay afloat, Sears sold their Craftsman tools brand last year and is evaluating an offer for their Kenmore appliance line.
Sears is still testing new concepts, like stand-alone mattress stores and combined Sears and Kmart locations, but retail analysts say it will be hard for the company to bounce back from its dire situation.
Sears shares have fallen more than 85 percent over the past 12 months, bringing the company’s market cap to $127.8 million, or less than Lampert is willing to pay for the Kenmore brand. The stock hit an all-time intraday low of $1.15 earlier this week. (source)
It isn’t just Sears and KMart that are in trouble.
Sears isn’t alone in their troubles. Thousands of retail outlets have closed already this year and this is an economic problem of massive proportions.
Jobs in the retail sector are the most prolific in America, employing 4.3 million workers as salespeople and 3.3 million workers as cashiers. (source) The current store closures mean the end of employment for tens of thousands of workers.
All in all, the collapse of the retail industry could, at some point, put the livelihoods of more than 7 million people in jeopardy. Perhaps the doomsaying economists like Peter Schiff and Dave Kunstler are right when they warn that a Great Depression the likes of the one in the early 1900s is upon us. That means not only massive unemployment but also massive hyperinflation, making it nearly impossible to keep your family fed. (But stuff like that can’t happen here, according to many naysayers.)
Let’s add to rising retail unemployment the move to more self-checkout, more AI, and more computerized systems instead of human staff. It’s not too hard to understand why people could soon be dependent on a Universal Basic Income and a return to an almost feudal society.
It’s amazing Sears managed to stay in business for so long. I stopped going to it last century (after Roebuck) due to lackluster service, prices, etc.,.
The Feudal Ages did have Guilds where one learned a trade instead of working in the service industry. Bring back vocational high schools, bypass less than useless colleges and it’s slavery loans, get a job and then decide if you want further educational skills.
K-Mart is still around?
One example of Sears’ “lackluster service” wayback in the eighties was when I tried to get a Kenmore washing machine replacement part. I tried a walk-in but was told to phone in for the part. After talking to literally seven different departments, each one transferring me to another person since they didn’t have the time. I had the part number and was more than willing to give them the money. At the end of the day I spent twenty dollars for a used washing machine which lasted longer than my next visit to Sears. On that visit I asked for their flex-waist work pants but was told they discontinued them. I recommended to the department manager and higher up it was a good selling feature but no go. I now go to another known store for the pants since they listen to the customer. And that’s the point, no matter how big you think you are it’s the day to day encounters that the customer sees.
Note: I like Craftsman’s tools, hope the good parts of Sears resurface.
They couldn’t try turning thier stores into some warehouses and competing online with decent prices or something? Sure some would still lose jobs but not as many. What’s a K-mart?
Craftsman tools were great back in the 70’s and early 80’s before they started buying from China. Too bad they sold off the Craftsman brand to Stanley-Black and Decker last year.
Craftsman Is Back: Stanley Black & Decker has relaunched the iconic tool brand with over 1,200 new tools and products
https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/a22776163/craftsman-is-back/
This is what Americans want to happen, because they just can’t stop themselves from shopping on government subsidized operations like Amazon.
I only bought clothes from sears, seemed good quality. I buy appliances from local appliance (family owned) dealer. Penny’s is also shutting down stores. Heard several complain about Sears lousy cust. svc. and I agreed. Most of us incl me, shop online have it delivered to the door. Tired of the traffic gridlock everywhere now days. Shop early in the day for groceries or things needed at Home Depot.
Sears had a great service dept where I live. Since I travel, if I had any problems there was almost always one near. No any longer……..I knew they were on a downward spiral once they sold off the craftsmen tool line. K-mart is sorta like a cross between a Target and walmart.