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More Kmart stores closing

Started by LM117, September 19, 2016, 06:00:32 PM

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Flint1979

Quote from: ftballfan on January 04, 2018, 11:37:44 PM
It's a miracle how the Traverse City Sears manages to survive. They are in the Cherryland Center, which was de-malled not long after Grand Traverse Mall opened in the early 1990s. Cherryland also had a Kmart which closed last year. Speaking of Grand Traverse Mall, it's one of the few malls that still has all of its original anchors (if you count Hudson's/Marshall Fields/Macy's as one; their other anchors are JCPenney and Target).

Down to 13 Kmarts in Michigan with Greenville and Richmond on the chopping block. I'm surprised Greenville made it this long with Walmart and Meijer nearby (in fact, Meijer, which was founded in Greenville, is right across the road and Walmart is less than a half mile away from the Greenville Kmart)
I didn't even know Traverse City still had a Sears but now that I look at it I have never really spent much time around that part of Traverse City but I can't believe they are still able to survive up there either. I kind of like Grand Traverse as a mall though being that it's smaller than most malls.
I'm surprised Richmond lasted this long with Kmart but it's kind of off the beaten path a little bit. I can't remember if the Marine City Kmart has closed or not but if it hasn't I wonder how the heck that one survives too.


AlexandriaVA

Quote from: 1995hoo on January 04, 2018, 08:27:26 PM
I'm a little surprised the Sears at Landmark Mall in Alexandria isn't on the list. Since the Macy's closed a year or two ago, Sears is all that's left there. The mall is to be redeveloped at some point into a "town center,"  but it's taking a long time.

Still can't fathom how that Sears outlasted everything else. Maybe Sears is holding out for a better sale price to Hughes (new developer), I've also heard it's because of the auto center. That whole property is a mess (although I did get my first-ever suit from the Hect's there).

inkyatari

And, over 100 more store closures have been announced...

http://www.businessinsider.com/sears-closing-stores-list-2018-1

Northfield Square in the Kankakee, IL area and Orland Square in Orland Park, IL are amongst the closing.
I'm never wrong, just wildly inaccurate.

Life in Paradise

The most recent store closings caught me off guard.  They are closing the Evansville, IN Sears store, which according to mall operators, is still profitable.  Between the K-Mart and Sears closings will basically remove the stores from our regional area.  What many people don't realize is that the first actual Sears store was in Evansville IN (they were catalog before).  It was actually located in downtown Evansville, and the existing store opened at a new mall that was christened in 1963.  I just want to know why don't they just pull the plug?  They have been beyond the point of no return for years.  The joke in these releases is that employees of closing stores are welcome to apply for jobs at other Sears/K-Mart stores (Where?  Are they really looking for employees somewhere?  I know shoppers are looking for employees, since there aren't too many of them at the stores).

Max Rockatansky

Quote from: Flint1979 on January 04, 2018, 11:52:54 PM
Quote from: ftballfan on January 04, 2018, 11:37:44 PM
It's a miracle how the Traverse City Sears manages to survive. They are in the Cherryland Center, which was de-malled not long after Grand Traverse Mall opened in the early 1990s. Cherryland also had a Kmart which closed last year. Speaking of Grand Traverse Mall, it's one of the few malls that still has all of its original anchors (if you count Hudson's/Marshall Fields/Macy's as one; their other anchors are JCPenney and Target).

Down to 13 Kmarts in Michigan with Greenville and Richmond on the chopping block. I'm surprised Greenville made it this long with Walmart and Meijer nearby (in fact, Meijer, which was founded in Greenville, is right across the road and Walmart is less than a half mile away from the Greenville Kmart)
I didn't even know Traverse City still had a Sears but now that I look at it I have never really spent much time around that part of Traverse City but I can't believe they are still able to survive up there either. I kind of like Grand Traverse as a mall though being that it's smaller than most malls.
I'm surprised Richmond lasted this long with Kmart but it's kind of off the beaten path a little bit. I can't remember if the Marine City Kmart has closed or not but if it hasn't I wonder how the heck that one survives too.

The last time I looked at a P&L for that store was maybe circa 2007?   They were doing surprisingly well at the onset of the recession, it doesn't surprise me that they made it to Sears last stand.

kkt

Sears has been closing about 400 stores a year, so at that rate they have a couple more years before the last one.  That's probably about as fast as their headquarters can handle.  For each one, there's real estate to sell, severance checks to write, relationships to wrap up with supporting contractors.

SectorZ

The Sears in Burlington MA closing is an odd bellwether. The Burlington Mall is one of the busiest malls in America. It already downsized from two stories to one. When I was a kid, in the 80's, that store was always mobbed.

Flint1979

Quote from: kkt on January 05, 2018, 11:25:51 AM
Sears has been closing about 400 stores a year, so at that rate they have a couple more years before the last one.  That's probably about as fast as their headquarters can handle.  For each one, there's real estate to sell, severance checks to write, relationships to wrap up with supporting contractors.
As of the 3rd quarter of 2017 they had 594 stores remaining. Both Sears and Kmart have an extremely high chance of disappearing and going defunct in 2018. After Sears closes the 39 stores they'll be at 555 stores and probably announce more closings.

Flint1979

Bay City, Michigan lost it's Sears in 2014 and Sears had a location in Bay City since 1928. A month after Sears announced this closing Target announced they were closing their store in the same mall which closed in early 2015.  In 2010, GGP who owned the mall at the time listed Bay City Mall among its least profitable malls.

Midland, Michigan, about 20 miles west of Bay City lost it's Sears and JCPenney both in the same mall. Sears closed in 2016 and JCPenney closed last year. Midland Mall is the smallest of the three malls in the Tri-Cities area but has the lowest vacancy rate of the three.

Fashion Square Mall in Saginaw, the other Tri City continues to have a Sears, Macy's and JCPenney with really no threat of losing any of them. JCPenney use to have a location in downtown Saginaw and one at Green Acres Plaza in Saginaw Township. The downtown one closed and relocated to the mall and the Green Acres one closed several years ago.

thenetwork

I see they are closing the Kmart in Warren, OH.  Kmart has (or probably now, had) a huge distribution center in Warren on the northwest side of town.  Before I moved out west, I worked for a courier/delivery company that delivered there.  It was an indoor dock facility with well over 100 spots for trucks to dock and load/unload.

1995hoo

Quote from: AlexandriaVA on January 04, 2018, 11:53:15 PM
Quote from: 1995hoo on January 04, 2018, 08:27:26 PM
I'm a little surprised the Sears at Landmark Mall in Alexandria isn't on the list. Since the Macy's closed a year or two ago, Sears is all that's left there. The mall is to be redeveloped at some point into a "town center,"  but it's taking a long time.

Still can't fathom how that Sears outlasted everything else. Maybe Sears is holding out for a better sale price to Hughes (new developer), I've also heard it's because of the auto center. That whole property is a mess (although I did get my first-ever suit from the Hect's there).

It's strange. Sears corporate considers that store to be an "inner-city" store due to shopper demographics, and I'd interpret that to be a negative factor against that store because the "inner-city" stores also all have greater issues with shoplifting and the like (this information all comes from a relative who used to work loss prevention for Sears). But on the other hand, maybe the store gets a fair amount of business from people who ride the DASH bus route that stops there. There also isn't another Sears store nearby to compete directly with it–the only other two around are at Seven Corners (the former Lord & Taylor) and at Fair Oaks. People who ride the DASH bus don't really have other easy department store options unless they take the Metrorail to Springfield Mall or Pentagon City (or somewhere further away), so perhaps they get more business than we might think.

The really strange local store setup is at Fair Oaks, where there are two Macy's (Macy'ses? Not sure what the correct plural is!). One of them was a Macy's originally and the other was a Hecht's. Apparently when Macy's took over Hecht's they decided they would rather have two stores there than allow a competitor to take over the space. (Once upon a time there was a plan for Nordstrom to open at Fair Oaks, but obviously that never happened.) I would think if Macy's are having trouble, as has been reported in the news, they would axe one of those Fair Oaks stores, but on the other hand maybe the landlord (Taubman Centers) gives them some kind of incentives out of the perfectly legitimate fear that losing two anchors (Macy's and Sears) would cause major problems for the mall.
"You know, you never have a guaranteed spot until you have a spot guaranteed."
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commenting on the Capitals clinching a playoff spot.

"That sounded stupid, didn't it?"
—Kolzig, to the same reporter a few seconds later.

doorknob60

Wow, the Magic Valley Mall (Twin Falls, ID) is screwed. Two of its anchors (Macy's and Sears) are closing within the next few months. That leaves Shopko (another dying chain, though they're treading water better than Kmart) and JC Penney (doing OK, but if Macy's closed wouldn't surprise me to see them go soon too) as anchors. The location (well, never been to the mall itself, but the road and surrounding area) is very high traffic and generally good (surrounded by Costco, Best Buy, Target, Home Depot, etc. just off the mall itself) so it will probably survive in some form, but wouldn't surprise me if some major changes happen over the next 5-10 years (like turning it into more of a strip mall).

thenetwork

#562
Quote from: 1995hoo on January 05, 2018, 12:27:40 PM
The really strange local store setup is at Fair Oaks, where there are two Macy's (Macy'ses? Not sure what the correct plural is!). One of them was a Macy's originally and the other was a Hecht's. Apparently when Macy's took over Hecht's they decided they would rather have two stores there than allow a competitor to take over the space.

Not necessarily uncommon, but there are malls with 2 buildings with the same stores.

There was a mall in Cleveland (Westgate Mall) where Dillard's occupied 2 separate anchor stores.  One was the original Higbees (which became Dillard's) and one was once Halle's and later Joseph Hornes.  When the latter went out of business, Higbee's/Dillards made their original store Housewares and Men's, while the Women's related clothing & jewelry moved over to the larger building. Both anchor stores were now Dillards, with Kohls added later. Westgate Mall has since been torn down but the Kohl's is still around.

Down in Akron, Higbee's/Dillards moved into the old Halle's department store when Halle's went out of business at Summit Mall.  Then they bought and expanded into what was the old Polsky's/Jewel Mart department store space, again putting men's and housewares into one building and all the women's apparel into the other.  Summit Mall is still alive with 3 Department Store anchors -- Macy's (Now the only one in Akron) and the 2 Dillard stores.

Oddly enough, Sears nor JCPenney's never were a part of either mall.

ftballfan

Quote from: Flint1979 on January 04, 2018, 11:52:54 PM
Quote from: ftballfan on January 04, 2018, 11:37:44 PM
It's a miracle how the Traverse City Sears manages to survive. They are in the Cherryland Center, which was de-malled not long after Grand Traverse Mall opened in the early 1990s. Cherryland also had a Kmart which closed last year. Speaking of Grand Traverse Mall, it's one of the few malls that still has all of its original anchors (if you count Hudson's/Marshall Fields/Macy's as one; their other anchors are JCPenney and Target).

Down to 13 Kmarts in Michigan with Greenville and Richmond on the chopping block. I'm surprised Greenville made it this long with Walmart and Meijer nearby (in fact, Meijer, which was founded in Greenville, is right across the road and Walmart is less than a half mile away from the Greenville Kmart)
I didn't even know Traverse City still had a Sears but now that I look at it I have never really spent much time around that part of Traverse City but I can't believe they are still able to survive up there either. I kind of like Grand Traverse as a mall though being that it's smaller than most malls.
I'm surprised Richmond lasted this long with Kmart but it's kind of off the beaten path a little bit. I can't remember if the Marine City Kmart has closed or not but if it hasn't I wonder how the heck that one survives too.
Marine City Kmart is still open. The nearest competitors are Meijer stores in Marysville and Chesterfield Township. The nearest Walmart is on the north end of Port Huron. Most of the remaining Kmart stores have little to no close competition. It would be very interesting to see a map of all the Kmart and Sears stores that have closed over the last few years

Flint1979

Quote from: ftballfan on January 06, 2018, 12:56:33 PM
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 04, 2018, 11:52:54 PM
Quote from: ftballfan on January 04, 2018, 11:37:44 PM
It's a miracle how the Traverse City Sears manages to survive. They are in the Cherryland Center, which was de-malled not long after Grand Traverse Mall opened in the early 1990s. Cherryland also had a Kmart which closed last year. Speaking of Grand Traverse Mall, it's one of the few malls that still has all of its original anchors (if you count Hudson's/Marshall Fields/Macy's as one; their other anchors are JCPenney and Target).

Down to 13 Kmarts in Michigan with Greenville and Richmond on the chopping block. I'm surprised Greenville made it this long with Walmart and Meijer nearby (in fact, Meijer, which was founded in Greenville, is right across the road and Walmart is less than a half mile away from the Greenville Kmart)
I didn't even know Traverse City still had a Sears but now that I look at it I have never really spent much time around that part of Traverse City but I can't believe they are still able to survive up there either. I kind of like Grand Traverse as a mall though being that it's smaller than most malls.
I'm surprised Richmond lasted this long with Kmart but it's kind of off the beaten path a little bit. I can't remember if the Marine City Kmart has closed or not but if it hasn't I wonder how the heck that one survives too.
Marine City Kmart is still open. The nearest competitors are Meijer stores in Marysville and Chesterfield Township. The nearest Walmart is on the north end of Port Huron. Most of the remaining Kmart stores have little to no close competition. It would be very interesting to see a map of all the Kmart and Sears stores that have closed over the last few years
Which is probably why the one in Midland remains open too. The Walmart and Meijer in Midland are in the same part of town but Kmart is on the other side of town. Bay City lost it's last Kmart just a few months ago and that was in between a Meijer and Walmart both about a mile or so away. I think one major thing about Kmart is they refused to remodel their stores to keep up with Walmart and Meijer. At least Meijer has been renovating their stores and keeping them up to date. The Burton Meijer is the oldest Meijer in Genesee County and was just remodeled for the first time in years in 2016.

dvferyance

The sad thing about Sears going away is that it was very unique when it came to mall based retail. It sold things that other stores didn't like electronics appliances, tools ect they had auto centers. While JCPenny's Macy's, Bon Ton, Nordstrom, Dillard's, Von Maur ect never sold any of those products. I think it came down to we just had too many stores but it still sad to see this happen. At least my local mall had a backup plan with Sears knowing the odds of it closing were high. Although I am not to thrilled about another movie theater as we already have enough of those as is. Now it appears the trend is going to be Target and Dick's Sporting Goods serving more as mall anchors something you never saw 20 or 30 years ago.

Brandon

^^ You're too young.  Back, prior to 1983, JCPenney sold appliances, tools, & had auto centers.  Basically, everything Sears had.  In the late 1980s, they discontinued electronics as well.  Other stores, such as Carson's & Field's even had TVs.  Others, like Wieboldt's, had tire centers.
"If you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention." - Ramsay Bolton

"Symbolic of his struggle against reality." - Reg

LM117

“I don’t know whether to wind my ass or scratch my watch!” - Jim Cornette

Flint1979

Quote from: dvferyance on January 07, 2018, 11:24:51 AM
The sad thing about Sears going away is that it was very unique when it came to mall based retail. It sold things that other stores didn't like electronics appliances, tools ect they had auto centers. While JCPenny's Macy's, Bon Ton, Nordstrom, Dillard's, Von Maur ect never sold any of those products. I think it came down to we just had too many stores but it still sad to see this happen. At least my local mall had a backup plan with Sears knowing the odds of it closing were high. Although I am not to thrilled about another movie theater as we already have enough of those as is. Now it appears the trend is going to be Target and Dick's Sporting Goods serving more as mall anchors something you never saw 20 or 30 years ago.
JCPenney at one time sold all these things. They had appliance, hardware and auto center departments but discontinued them in the 1980's. Before 1966 most JCPenney locations were in the downtown's of cities too.

dvferyance

#569
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 07, 2018, 01:44:10 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on January 07, 2018, 11:24:51 AM
The sad thing about Sears going away is that it was very unique when it came to mall based retail. It sold things that other stores didn't like electronics appliances, tools ect they had auto centers. While JCPenny's Macy's, Bon Ton, Nordstrom, Dillard's, Von Maur ect never sold any of those products. I think it came down to we just had too many stores but it still sad to see this happen. At least my local mall had a backup plan with Sears knowing the odds of it closing were high. Although I am not to thrilled about another movie theater as we already have enough of those as is. Now it appears the trend is going to be Target and Dick's Sporting Goods serving more as mall anchors something you never saw 20 or 30 years ago.
JCPenney at one time sold all these things. They had appliance, hardware and auto center departments but discontinued them in the 1980's. Before 1966 most JCPenney locations were in the downtown's of cities too.
Come to think about it I think JCPenney may still sell some appliances although not as large of a selection as Sears. I do vaguely remember when Bon Ton in our area known as Boston Store sold electronics we bought our VCR there. Now without Sears it just feels like all the department stores are all basically the same. Von Maur recently opened in my area but they basically sell the same stuff that Nordstrom, Macy's and Bon Ton does.

kkt

The markup isn't high enough on appliances, hardware, and auto repair to pay a mall's cut and still make money.  And they're worth enough that people will shop around.

US71

Quote from: kkt on January 07, 2018, 09:47:01 PM
The markup isn't high enough on appliances, hardware, and auto repair to pay a mall's cut and still make money.  And they're worth enough that people will shop around.

My local JCP put up a sign that they now sell appliances.
Like Alice I Try To Believe Three Impossible Things Before Breakfast

thenetwork

Quote from: Flint1979 on January 07, 2018, 01:44:10 PM
Quote from: dvferyance on January 07, 2018, 11:24:51 AM
The sad thing about Sears going away is that it was very unique when it came to mall based retail. It sold things that other stores didn't like electronics appliances, tools ect they had auto centers. While JCPenny's Macy's, Bon Ton, Nordstrom, Dillard's, Von Maur ect never sold any of those products. I think it came down to we just had too many stores but it still sad to see this happen. At least my local mall had a backup plan with Sears knowing the odds of it closing were high. Although I am not to thrilled about another movie theater as we already have enough of those as is. Now it appears the trend is going to be Target and Dick's Sporting Goods serving more as mall anchors something you never saw 20 or 30 years ago.
JCPenney at one time sold all these things. They had appliance, hardware and auto center departments but discontinued them in the 1980's. Before 1966 most JCPenney locations were in the downtown's of cities too.

Don't forget Monkey,...er Montgomery Wards.  They were the competitors to Sears as they had hardware and Auto Stores until their end in the 90s.

FUN FACTS:  To my knowledge, for reasons I have yet to figure out, Montgomery Wards never had *ANY* store presence in the Cleveland, Ohio market, even though they had stores in surrounding Akron, Canton, Youngstown & Toledo.

And since the early-mid 80's, Kroger's has no stores in the Cleveland/Akron/Canton market.  IIRC, Kroger had pulled out all their stores from this area as a result of bitter disputes from the grocery union (UFCW).  Yet despite Giant Eagle now being the only large regional grocery-only market chain in the area once Tops left, and Kroger being an Ohio company, Kroger still will not come back to NE OH.  Toledo and Columbus are the closest Krogers.


SP Cook

The reason the then "Big 3" (Sears, JC Penney, and Wards) sold appliances and electronics and did mid-level auto repairs and sold tires and batteries, was credit cards.  Back in the day, the only people that had general credit cards like MC, Visa and AMEX, were the upper middle class and above and people who traveled a great deal.  But stores all had their own credit cards, and the Big 3, and particularly Sears would give credit very liberally.  As such, while better prices and/or quality was available elsewhere, people shopped where they could, as the phrase of the day went, get the products "on time". 

Sears, until I think the early 90s IIRC, insisted on having its own brand names on EVERYTHING in the store.    Even things that clearly were just relabeled products.  I remember when the Atari 2600 came out, Sears sold it as the "Sears Tele Game" and even sold its own (totally compatible) cartridges, the earliest of which it would rename these (Combat, which came with the game, was "Tanks Plus" and so on).  When the Mattel "Intelivision" came out, it did the same thing, calling it the "Sears Super Tele Game".  Same deal with Sony Batamax (while there is a lot of material on that "format war", no one ever mentions that Sony lost despite Sears, which had a huge share of the TV market in that era, on its side), which was relabeled as just "Sears".


inkyatari

Quote from: SP Cook on January 08, 2018, 09:57:39 AM


Sears, until I think the early 90s IIRC, insisted on having its own brand names on EVERYTHING in the store.    Even things that clearly were just relabeled products.  I remember when the Atari 2600 came out, Sears sold it as the "Sears Tele Game" and even sold its own (totally compatible) cartridges, the earliest of which it would rename these (Combat, which came with the game, was "Tanks Plus" and so on). 

As a retro gamer, I may add, that Sears also carried the Tele-Games II.  This was the Atari 2800 which was only released in Japan, rebranded with the Sears trademarks.  It was fully compatible with the 2600.  Sleek little system too.  The joysticks and paddles were on one controller.
I'm never wrong, just wildly inaccurate.



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