Retail Watchers

This time its Spanaway, WA....Wasn't on the last big closure list

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/busi ... 75559.html

Decent Kmart up until the last year or so when Kmart's financial issues came to a peak. Last year or so, shelves are often bare of product, no new books, minimal deliveries...which would get frustrating if you would go there to get a certain product.
But, alas, those days are over. The Spanaway location has liquidation (store closing) signs affixed and all items are 10-30% as of today (April 11th, 2017). Au revoir, Kmarche of Spanaway. You served me well from 2012-2015ish.

via Yelp.
Exterior looks nice because apparently there was a fire here?

There was a fire a while back but I think they did more of a restoration than a complete remodel. I have posted about this location a few times. One thing that stood out to me was this one had the lower ceiling seen in many 70s Kmarts but had lighting typical of the 1990s builds. But the lighting was like that before the fire. It apparently is a 1980s build.

Seeing how Sears Holdings continuously closes stores, I would not be surprised to see Sears and Kmart stores close unannounced.

There was an ad in the Phoenix paper this morning from Kmart on an "inventory reduction" sale at 3 stores in Phoenix area....Mesa, Tolleson, and N Phoenix ( which I believe are the only stores left in PHX) It sounds like the death bells may be tolling for Kmart here.

Add Dickson City, Pa. to the "quiet" list. Liquidation sale started just a few days ago and plans to be closed by sometime in July. I was there the day this one opened in November 1973-you couldn't get near the place.

I was in the Sparks, NV location today. Same old thing. Empty spaces all over. About 40% of the lights were off in all areas of the store except clothing which was fully lit (large space, most of the old adjoining grocery store space). Garden center was closed and they had two tiny racks of plants in front of the main doors. You couldn't even get into the semi-enclosed garden center where they keep (kept?) fertilizer, pots, and other such items; the doors were covered in paper and it was simply not open.

The store around 1 PM had less than 5 other shoppers and I counted 4 employees total in the store including a manager, a cashier, an employee on the service desk, and a second employee walking around.

This is one sad death.

TW-Upstate NY wrote:Add Dickson City, Pa. to the "quiet" list. Liquidation sale started just a few days ago and plans to be closed by sometime in July. I was there the day this one opened in November 1973-you couldn't get near the place.

A couple other stores in the Philadelphia area: Bensalem, PA and Feasterville, PA are in various stages of liquidation. Neither of these stores were on any list or local news story and I only discovered they were closing from someones Flickr photos.

It seems like the only stores that haven't closed are ones that are highly profitable, or where Sears actually owns the property, or maybe some stores that still have a very long lease left. I've seen some stories of other stores that are 'downsizing' (Rehoboth Beach, DE I think is one of them, with the extra space going to other lined-up tenants. Makes me wonder why they are even bothering and not just closing it outright).

Edit: Here is a list of some of the 'unannounced' closures:
http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of- ... ing-2017-5

mbz321 wrote:I've seen some stories of other stores that are 'downsizing' (Rehoboth Beach, DE I think is one of them, with the extra space going to other lined-up tenants. Makes me wonder why they are even bothering and not just closing it outright).

Perhaps that one does OK (being close to a tourist area may make it a stop for those things one forgot) and they figure it's the best of both worlds - keeping a smaller space (which is easier to maintain and keep stocked with less inventory needed) and still getting the cash for the smaller space rentals?