HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL. (EYT) – And then there were three.
As the financial woes of the once-mighty Sears Holdings continue, Kmart is closing one of its final four locations.
According to Fortune, the Kmart store in Avenel, N.J., will close on April 17. The April closure in New Jersey brings back the 2018 memories of one of the last Kmart stores in the region, Sugarcreek in Venango County, closing on April 8 of that year. Four months prior to that closure, the longtime Clarion Mall Kmart closed its doors. The Clarion location remains unoccupied while the Sugarcreek store was replaced by a Rural King. The DuBois Kmart closed in 2017 and is now occupied by a Hobby Lobby.
A customer enters the Clarion Kmart before it closed in 2018.
Sears is now owned by Transformco, and they continue the plan to close unprofitable stores.
In a statement on a recent closing in Fort Lauderdale, FL., Transformco said, “Transformco’s go-forward store strategy for Sears and Kmart is to operate a diversified portfolio consisting of a small number of larger, premier stores with a larger number of small format stores – combined with its Shop Your Way rewards program, online marketplace and buy online, pick up in store capabilities.” Those remaining Kmart stores are in Westwood, N.J., Long Island, N.Y., and Miami, FL.
Kmart and its holding company Sears fell to competitors like Walmart and the inability to adapt to 21st Century retailers like Amazon. The long-running bankruptcy proceedings may end soon as a mediator has been appointed to figure out litigation as Sears is still short $62 million, according to an article on Seeking Alpha.
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