Kmart Guam received a huge traffic during the holiday season. Photo by Bruce Lloyd
Sears Holdings has announced the impending closure of another 103 Kmart and Sears stores nationwide — on top of the 63 closing at the end of this month. Luckily for Guam consumers, the shopping in Tamuning, which opened in 1996, survives the chopping block.
The company said most of the stores will close by April. The new list of closures includes 64 Kmart stores and 39 Sears stores. Most stores that are affected by the cuts are on the East Coast and Midwest.
"Sears Holdings continues its strategic assessment of the productivity of our Kmart and Sears store base and will continue to right size our store footprint in number and size," the company said in a statement. "In the process, as previously announced, we will continue to close some unprofitable stores as we transform our business model so that our physical store footprint and our digital capabilities match the needs and preferences of our members."
Sears has reported dipping sales — down 45 percent since early 2013. While its debt load has spiraled to over $4 billion, it has been losing well over $1 billion annually.
In 2017, Sears closed nearly 400 Sears and Kmart stores and the impending round of closures will leave it with fewer than 940 stores, down from 3,510 six years ago.
"The company will continue to rightsize our footprint in number and size," Sears said in a statement.