I believe that many stores in California are set for closure in the near future, especially if we keep in mind that there are a lot of stores in that state. So, unfortunately the logical move is to thin the presence in that state. This is only my take on the situation, but I wanted to ask has anybody heard anything about what stores are first in line to be closed in California?
12 replies (most recent on top)
@11jSj5zw-1jzu I am so sorry to hear about your store closing.......I was forced into retirement when our stored closed in January..........I took my pension before the PBGC took over and my 401K and ran with it. Sad when it's coming down to. :-(
@1lav. You are absolutely right. The majority of the merchandise comes through the LA and Long Beach ports.
California stores remain open for the simple reason that shipping containers worth of stuff come over from China and distribution centers are there, so there's not much cost of transportation to get things there.
@1zgb I stand corrected. Technically, yes. we are closing instead of closed. Unfortunately this is the second closing I have gone through. This one is crazy. We are a big three story store and we are full of merchandise. I said I would retire after the first closing but came back. I guarantee I will retire after this one. I'll be all worn out. We have to be out of the building by the first week of January.
@11jSj5zw-1tjw That's exactly when I wrote......"it is not closed".
@1bos Northridge is open because it is being liquidated. I work there.
To: @11jSj5zw-jro Sears Northridge located in the San Fernando Valley is not closed........Sears Boyle and Sears Baldwin Hills still open and in the metro LA area. Must have been another Sear store closure that sent the shock waves.
I doubt a Sears store closing anywhere in southern california sent "shock waves" there. Over a year ago a post was written that said the South Coast Plaza Sears was "untouchable". It promptly closed. You would have to have your head in the sand (or elsewhere) to be shocked by a Sears closing anywhere...
@cjt Texas has 29 million people to CA's 39 million, yet only 1 Kmart to CA's 20. There is absolutely a lot of chopping up to do in CA. At some point, stores near each other are duplicative and take business from each other. This is a Dead company walking. They need to, if anything, maintain a skeletal presence while they gasp their final breaths. 1 way or the other, they are all closing soon anyway.
They have about 40 Sears & 20 Kmarts in CA. Yes CA is the biggest state, but proportionally, NY has half the population yet only like 8 Kmarts and Sears (approximately) each. There's absolutely some thinning/trimming that has to be done there.
The current stores still exist for the cash they bring into the company. If your store goes into the red for any length of time that triggers a review of future store revenue projections. The company is now pretty good at knowing when to throw in the towel on a store location. It's no longer keeping stores open out of pride of having x number of stores open. What good does it do to have 2,000 stores when 1,500 are losing the company money. Transformco isn't a philanthropic retailer, keeping stores open by throwing money at them which they know they will never recoup.
Are they going to close more CA stores? Of course. When they closed the Northridge CA Sears store that sent shock waves through So Cal and the company. Northridge was the company store on the west coast and the LA metro area. It was in one of the top malls in the nation. The further away from the Delano and Ontario distribution centers your store is located the greater your chances of closure.