Sears is bracing to close over 100 retail store locations in the coming months, retailer is expected to close 31 of its auto center locations. Most of the closings are slated to occur just before Christmas of this year.
Recently, liquidation sale notices were discovered. The sales notices issued stated that 30 additional Sears stores would be closing soon as well as 31 auto center locations. The store closings are slated to happen throughout the United States. Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, West Virginia and other states will be affected by the announcement.
The store appears to be in a race to raise cash. The retailer has lost nearly $1 billion in sales. Since investors got wind of the closing, shares saw a 23 percent increase. The company is focusing on raising $625 million. In order to obtain the funding needed, the chain has also announced plans to lease seven Sears locations.
The retailer still has 800 Sears store locations. Unprofitable stores will be closing their doors as soon as the lease expires. Decision makers have the stance that any store that is unprofitable should be automatically closed. Earlier this year, Sears announced that it would be cutting underperforming stores. When all of the stores have been cut, approximately 2,400 employees will be jobless. There will be 1,000 hardware employees and 765 employees from the tire and battery brand when the stores are closed. The decision was made after evaluating the performance of stores for Christmas season in December of last year. The struggling sales were attributed to dwindling sales and harsh weather conditions.
The company’s strategy is to focus on how to better execute their retail strategy. Doing fewer things better is expected to be the approach that will revive the company’s sales. The approach to focusing on productivity and greater performance was behind the decision to close many of its locations. Sears may be looking at all of its other businesses unrelated to the core of their brand and may be making cuts accordingly. The company is expected to exit the termite-pest control business soon in an effort to focus on the most productive elements.
Sears and many other major retailers will continue to be making the tough calls in continuing to close more store locations. The major retailers will have to close the locations in order to increase profitability. As the retailer continues to assess all of its non-core businesses and underperforming locations, more layoffs and closings are expected to occur.
