storewanderer wrote: ↑August 7th, 2019, 10:19 pm I see that Sears in the ghost mall in Aberdeen, WA keeps holding on...
This is a pretty significant round of closures for a chain with less than 400 stores. There have been some other "quiet" closures the past four or five months as well so I wonder what this actually brings store count to. Sears count appears to be approaching 150. Tough to see how it makes any sense to keep the full line Sears format going long term...
Kmart store count probably will still be closer to 200. Still don't think that is enough stores to keep going long term.
Sears, according to articles I have read about that mall, owns their building in Aberdeen. This may be a factor in why it is still open.
Some of the locations in WA/OR such as Aberdeen do not make sense as far as logistics. Others, such as stores in Lacey, The Dalles, and Southcenter, make a little more sense as they are close to major freeways.cjd wrote: ↑August 8th, 2019, 2:20 pm At this point it seems they're just riding out the leases. If you figure when all the Sears and Kmarts around here closed or are closing, it comes up to 20 or 25 years from their opening.
They aren't going to renew any leases. They're just trying to squeeze the most profits out of them as they can, until they have to close.
I see them maybe making another 5 to 10 years max as a chain and even that seems quite doubtful.
The logistics of operating just a few or even one store in a state just doesn't make sense.
However, if Sears is not operating their own truck fleet, and relying on outside companies for deliveries, this is going to work against them, especially with distribution centers disappearing, not to mention many gaps where states do not have a Kmart and/or Sears left. Yet there is still that location in Guam, as well as Puerto Rico...