Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by Super S »

cjd wrote: November 8th, 2019, 6:44 pm

I'm not shocked by any Sears or Kmart closing anymore. It really seems to me that their M.O. is to close stores as the leases are up. They aren't renewing any regardless if it's a newer store or the only store in town, they don't care.

That's probably why we're seeing so many 1990s built stores close, since they are at 20-25 years old now. And some of the older 70s stores may be at the end of 40 or 45 year leases.

I too expect the rest of the Kmart stores to close after Christmas and probably Sears won't be far behind.
I am surprised that any Sears and Kmart stores are still open at this point in 2019. We still have a little under two months to go...
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by storewanderer »

Closing the Kmart in Bishop, CA which has no competition for like 3 hours, or the one in Jackson, WY which has no competition for like 1 hour... I really have to think it is over at this point... Bishop was in really rough shape when I was there last month and the employee morale was obviously very broken in the store.

Oddly the two Kmarts nearest me, South Lake Tahoe, CA and Grass Valley, CA, continue to be open. Both are pretty poorly stocked and have been all year. Grass Valley is very well staffed and I would not be surprised if it is the best Kmart left after Guam. Tahoe is just a real dump and I'm surprised it has made it this long.
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by Bagels »

storewanderer wrote: November 9th, 2019, 12:01 am Closing the Kmart in Bishop, CA which has no competition for like 3 hours, or the one in Jackson, WY which has no competition for like 1 hour... I really have to think it is over at this point... Bishop was in really rough shape when I was there last month and the employee morale was obviously very broken in the store.

Oddly the two Kmarts nearest me, South Lake Tahoe, CA and Grass Valley, CA, continue to be open. Both are pretty poorly stocked and have been all year. Grass Valley is very well staffed and I would not be surprised if it is the best Kmart left after Guam. Tahoe is just a real dump and I'm surprised it has made it this long.
I visited the Sears in Orange, CA "just because" after the latest closings were announced. It surprised me how well staffed the store was -- roughly a dozen employees working the modestly sized men's department, despite the fact that there were no shoppers (at approximately 6PM) in an otherwise busy mall.

When I was 18, I visited a Sears Dental Center (the only place I could secure a Saturday appointment). I have no idea if it was owned by Sears at that point in time, or if they had sold the practice and licensed the name, but I do know that the dental hygienist insisted I needed a deep cleaning, spent ~40 minutes on it, and billed my insurance ~$2,600 for it... which they rejected since I didn't get pre-approval. And 18-year-old me, making $5,50/hour, had to pay it. I never stepped foot in a Sears again until the other day (over 19 years later).
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by Alpha8472 »

The 90,000 square foot Kmart in Concord, California will not become a Target. Target rejected the location as the shopping center will only allow 1 store in the shopping center to sell groceries. It is a lease restriction since there is already a Lucky Supermarket. The space will be divided into something else.
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

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Alpha8472 wrote: November 10th, 2019, 2:02 pm The 90,000 square foot Kmart in Concord, California will not become a Target. Target rejected the location as the shopping center will only allow 1 store in the shopping center to sell groceries. It is a lease restriction since there is already a Lucky Supermarket. The space will be divided into something else.
Target just remodeled in Carson City, NV and only sells non-perishable groceries (and a few frozen foods and dairy items), no produce etc. It is quite comparable to what a Big Kmart offered back when the Big Kmart format was actually stocked fully. Target has more specialty and snack type grocery items than Kmart ever had but the square footage allocated is very similar. I would think Target could at least have a grocery offering comparable to what Kmart has.
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by Alpha8472 »

The Kmart had very little food the last time I checked. The refrigerators were filled with bottled water. They apparently do not sell milk or orange juice anymore. The store has practically given up restocking new merchandise.

Target could open a successful new store selling very little food, but 90,000 feet is apparently too small for Target these days.

I predict that a dollar store or Marshalls will open up here.
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Super S wrote: November 7th, 2019, 9:53 pm 96 more closures:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/here- ... 2019-11-07

With the closures in Algona and Charles City, Kmart is history in Iowa.
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by Super S »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: November 11th, 2019, 7:51 pm

With the closures in Algona and Charles City, Kmart is history in Iowa.
And Oregon, Wyoming, Ohio, and many others.

Worth noting is that Hamilton, Montana (the last with the original logo) is still not on any closing list:
https://www.kbzk.com/news/montana-news/ ... e-closures
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by jamcool »

I don’t know why Target couldn’t do a small town format store, especially because they already have the smaller City Targets in downtown areas
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Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by storewanderer »

jamcool wrote: November 12th, 2019, 10:14 pm I don’t know why Target couldn’t do a small town format store, especially because they already have the smaller City Targets in downtown areas
Target's format is not geared toward small towns. Limited hardlines, no garden center, overly trendy clothing where basic clothing is more in demand, combined with Target's marketing approach are all not really a great fit with small towns. This is why Target struggles even in medium sized markets that skew lower middle class.

Target makes a lot of money selling "trendy" items, seasonal decor items, etc. These items simply do not sell well in small towns.

Target is looking for easy money in more densely populated areas and customers who will buy high mark up disposable goods and come back often for those items. In small towns, there is a lot less interest in that sort of product.

Kmart maintained a fairly good hardlines assortment over the years (for the past 5 years it has been inferior to Wal Mart, but still ahead of Target). It probably helped some of these rural stores hang on a little longer.

I do not think a chain with less than 50 stores scattered around the mainland US (and another dozen stores off on remote islands) has any chance of making it. Far flung stores like Hamilton, MT- how do you supply that? Burlington, WA is also not on any closure list (I understand Kmart owns this building) and it is a very sad low volume place and has been for some time. What amazes me is it has gotten this far. How many more closure rounds will there be before they finally let this go? It can't be too many now.
Last edited by storewanderer on November 12th, 2019, 10:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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