Sears/Kmart: Will 2020 be the end?

[cjd]

It makes you wonder too with how Kmart and Sears have private label brands how it can make sense for companies to keep producing for them if there are so few sales. Although I do know a lot of these items have been expanded to Amazon and other online retailers.

[storewanderer]

Not all of the private label brands, especially on softlines, made it through the bankruptcy. Many of their clothes last year started to be other very generic brands, some clothing they were selling actually had no brand at all of any kind.

Given they have all but closed down the bed/bath and kitchen categories the private label items in those categories are almost gone entirely except for what I suspect are some old stock Essential Home items from the distant past. They pulled in some new items (10% of what they had before) into kitchen under the "Social Chef" line. There is a very curated (probably 5% of what they had before) assortment of Canon (Cannon?) brand soft home product and that is it there.

[cjd]

I think a lot of the kitchenware stuff was scaled back too. Since around 2015 or so I noticed there was not much of that left at Sears here, although Kmart actually had a pretty good selection when they closed.

I'm thinking some of the lines may have already been discontinued since I'm not seeing much of it come up on eBay anymore as overstock/return items.

[retailfanmitchell019]

It appears 5 more Sears and 2 more Kmarts were announced for closure in the past few days...

How long can this string out...?

Is it going to get to a point where there are like 5-10 stores under each banner still open? Unreal.

They appear to be quietly closing stores yet again with no announcements. There aren't many left to close. The logistics of shipping alone do not really support keeping some of them open unless the volume is unusually high. I can see where some of the far flung locations with not much else around, such as that store in Hamilton, Montana, probably have a higher volume, but still, there is only so much volume a store like that can generate.

I'm beginning to wonder if there is any rhyme or reason to what they are closing. The stores still open as of this moment in CA are in some town names that I consider interesting. Big Bear Lake, South Lake Tahoe, Grass Valley, McKinleyville, Freedom... maybe someone keeps stores open in towns with funny sounding names. They don't really have any competition but the past couple years they have been closing a lot of stores with no competition so that factor does not seem to justify staying open any longer.

Big Bear Lake is a ski town without a Walmart or Target. The Kmart there does OK business, and is a strong candidate for the last one open.
There is still a Kmart open in Ramona (ruralish San Diego suburb). I'm surprised this one hasn't closed yet. People in Ramona want a Walmart (the nearest one is down the hill in Poway).

[jamcool]

I imagine Walmart going into those sites....they do have smaller supercenters in some markets

[klkla]

The stores still open as of this moment in CA are in some town names that I consider interesting. Big Bear Lake, South Lake Tahoe, Grass Valley, McKinleyville, Freedom... maybe someone keeps stores open in towns with funny sounding names. They don't really have any competition but the past couple years they have been closing a lot of stores with no competition so that factor does not seem to justify staying open any longer.

Big Bear makes sense because there is no competition up there and the barriers to entry are significant.

[storewanderer]

The stores still open as of this moment in CA are in some town names that I consider interesting. Big Bear Lake, South Lake Tahoe, Grass Valley, McKinleyville, Freedom... maybe someone keeps stores open in towns with funny sounding names. They don't really have any competition but the past couple years they have been closing a lot of stores with no competition so that factor does not seem to justify staying open any longer.

Big Bear makes sense because there is no competition up there and the barriers to entry are significant.

Similar for Jackson Hole and Bishop both of which closed a few months ago.

Also similar for South Lake Tahoe and Grass Valley.

[Super S]

A sad, sudden end to a very profitable, and at times controversial, Kmart in Minneapolis:

https://www.startribune.com/unrest-afte ... 571055262/

The article also states that fewer than 35 Kmarts remain in the U.S.

[storewanderer]

They also announced 7 more Kmart closures today; 2 in Puerto Rico and 5 elsewhere (2 in CA: Ramona and McKinleyville, the others back east).

All closures in Seritage owned buildings.

It is really looking like this is going to get down to literally only 10-15 stores still left in operation before it all closes down. Thing is the open stores are zombies without basic general merchandise beyond the food/drug C&S is sending anyway, and for all intents and purposes already closed in the sense of being a useful store.

[retailfanmitchell019]

They also announced 7 more Kmart closures today; 2 in Puerto Rico and 5 elsewhere (2 in CA: Ramona and McKinleyville, the others back east).

Where exactly are the 3 closures out east?

People in Ramona want a Walmart anyway. That Ramona closure means Kmart is no more in San Diego County.
I'm shocked the Kmarts in Costa Mesa and Long Beach haven't closed yet. I doubt those two will be around 4 months from now...