sears - WKTV Journal

By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma

On the heels of the announcement that Sears at Woodland Mall is closing, Joseph F. Coradino, CEO of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT) which owns the mall, announced on PREIT’s website “the company has executed a lease with a fashion department store to replace Sears at Woodland Mall, providing a remarkable opportunity to enhance this premier property,”

The statement goes on to say that the company is also finalizing lease documents with two other non-Michigan PREIT properties, Capital City and Magnolia Malls, that also are losing Sears stores.

“The transactions are part of PREIT’s plan to continue upgrading its property following our aggressive portfolio disposition and repositioning program which has created a quality platform that is more compelling to retailers,” Coradino said in the statement.

The company release stated PREIT has reduced the number of Sears and Kmart stores in its portfolio from 27 to 11. A mall in Scranton, Penn., has a DICK’S Sporting Goods, Field & Stream and HomeGoods replacing a former Sears store and in Chester County, Penn., a Whole Foods is under construction to replace a former KMart.

Sears Holding announced today, Jan. 4, the impending closure of 26 Sears stores and 78 KMarts. The only Sears store in Michigan scheduled to close is the one at Woodland Mall. Most recently, the KMart store at Clyde Park and 68th Street along with one on Plainfield Avenue closed at the end of 2016.

The reason for the closures, according to company officials, is financial performance at those locations.

Sears has been a fixture at Woodland Mall since 1968, when the mall opened. Sears, originally Sears Roebuck & Co., was started in 1886 as a mail ordering company and opened retail stores in 1925. It was headquartered at the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower), the tallest building in Chicago. It is now based in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

KMart, the first opened in 1962 by Detroit-based S.S. Kresge Company, was once a staple in the Michigan retail scene. In 2004, KMart purchased Sears with the corporate name changing to Sears Holdings Corporation. The recent announcement of closures will reduce the number of KMart stores to 28 statewide.

By Victoria Mullen

WKTV

Citing poor sales, parent company Sears Holdings Corp. reported that it is closing two Kmart stores in Kent County — on 68th Street in Byron Township and N. Kent Mall NE in Plainfield Township. The beleaguered company said its liquidation sale begins Sept. 22. The closures are expected in mid-December — and plans are to remain open for customers until then.

Just this past May at its quarterly meeting, Sears Holdings said it planned to restore profitability to the company and fund its transformation into a member-focused company.

But financial analysts worry that the future of the Kmart brand will continue to decline despite its efforts to make a comeback, especially when compared with its main national competitors, Target and Walmart.

Sears opened its first retail store and catalog center in 1925 and was America’s largest retailer until 1989, when it was surpassed by Walmart. Once an American icon of business and merchandising, Sears has been struggling as a company for years.

In 2005 Sears declared bankruptcy and was bought by Kmart, merging the two companies into Sears Holdings Corporation (SHC.)

There are still some Kmart locations open in West Michigan in Battle Creek, Greenville, Hastings, Muskegon and Marshall.