Last week, we shared an updated version of a list naming 109 Kmart and Sears stores reported by employees or local media outlets to be closing by early 2015. While Sears still won’t confirm or deny these reports on a company-wide level, the company did tell investors as part of its quarterly earnings report this week that it plans to close 105 more stores by the beginning of next year.
Closing stores that aren’t profitable is part of any turnaround plan when a retail chain is in trouble, and as Sears finds itself in need of more cash to stay in business, the company is picking up the pace of store closings. The company is considering forming a real estate investment trust and selling some stores to it, has borrowed a large amount of money from its own CEO with store buildings as collateral, and has been been working out deals to rent or sublease all or part of any store in which other retailers show interest.
Still, some experts believe that the retailer remains in a death spiral, and that efforts to sell or spin off Sears Holdings assets that still have value (like store buildings and the Lands’ End brand) are only an attempt to salvage something from the pieces of a company that was once a global retailing icon.
Sears Holdings Reports Third Quarter 2014 Results [Sears Holdings]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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