Thank you for the information this board has provided and after 23 years its not so easy to just find another job as some say and all we can do is prepare.
Does anyone think that the next round list is already made and when it will begin? People say October and we just dont have the fall/winter softlnes we had in the past so it makes sense but does anyone think that Hoffman knows???
@2djt That's the Leechburg-Alleghany store not Pittsburgh. And regardless, it's closing anyway. The pharmacy closed now, the rest of the store soon to follow.
Pittsburgh's stores have already long since closed.
https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/big-kmart-in-allegheny-township-will-close-before-christmas/
Pittsburgh is still open for now. But the pharmacy is closing. https://triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/allegheny-township-kmart-closes-pharmacy/
West Chester is closing? Well, that s—s. If a store can't make it in Pennsylvania's riches county, what chance do the rest of us have?
@1fye: I think the poster meant West Chester, PA, or store # 7374.
Westchester County, NY? As in the White Plains store? Is that closing?
Sears/Transformco is also having landlord issues. Mall landlords are demanding payment of "cure costs", i.e. money owed for stores on their property (taxes, maintenance, repairs,). Apparently, the landlords, through their attorneys, are not budging on taking discounts from Eddie's struggling company. All of it is listed in court documents.
Apparently, Simon Properties wants to buy out Sears from their building.
Supposedly West Chester has been told they're closing.
@Jack-
Thanks for the updated information. I guess I didn't google far back enough to find the 2 stores mentioned were already closed. So we stand at 11.
@1pfz-
I know Ephrata is still open, and I'm pretty sure West Chester is still open as well. So it looks like, if the rumor mill is correct, that PA is somewhat "saturated" (by Transform's likely definition), and it will probably take a major hit with its store numbers.
@1ybm-
I would agree with your idea of a conversion of full line sears taking on the softlines of kmart to solve any sort of shipping logistics, but there aren't many of those either. I honestly think all current sears and kmart stores will shutter, and the hometown stores will be the new attempt at rebranding the new sears.
Another thing I was thinking about is the remaining stores are in random, far flung locations. For example only 1 store each, in AZ, IL, MN, WA, MT, TX and some other states too. How on Earth is it economically feasible to send trucks to stores that are 100's of miles apart with none nearby to each other (in some areas)? Even in more populated areas like NYC, they have 4 Kmarts in the city, okay, but then they have 1 on the eastern end of Long Island, then 1 random remaining store, way upstate, in Sidney NY. What about especially HUGE states (area-Wise) like Texas and Montana? I think each has 1 random Kmart each. They have to be losing Money shipping to those random locations nowhere near any other one.
They also (for some reason) have 4 stores in the USVI. I can just imagine the logistics of shipping sh!t to 4 random stores on an island, far away from the mainland of the US. The whole thing seems like a disjointed mess at this point LOL. If they want to continue their brick and mortar operations, instead of being spread out all over the country, they might want to just concentrate on certain regions of the country, instead of random stores, like 300 miles away from each other LOL!
From a distribution standpoint if any Kmarts survive they will mostly be Sears. The Sears stores if they survive will mostly share hardlines product with hometown. Like when Kmart had only a handful of super Kmarts and used a grocery supplier to do the grocery side they will likely use some nationwide grocery distributor like Western Family to provide the grocery sections, that is if they keep any open. You may see subdividing where allowed. Any way you look at it Kmart like it is now will not exist even if the stores remain open.
@1shy Exactly what I was thinking. How do they run a business with 1 store in IL, 1 store in MN (and other states like that too)? How is it economical to run trucks 100's of miles to randoms stores with none nearby?
All the stores are on a closing list, a year from now, none will be here.
I'm just confused from a distribution standpoint. No business planning to stay in business would have such a sparce footprint. If you have 2 stores in a state with hundreds of miles in between them, it's not fiscally smart to move product to them.
@1pfz Any links to West Chester and Ephrata already closing? They may very well be on the next list, but they are not closing as of now, as far as I Know. Just google Kmart closing, and that USA TODAY article comes up with the Aug. 31 closing round. There are several PA stores on that list but not the 2 you mentioned.
@1pbe Your list is close, but both Pittsburgh and Erie have been long since closed. That's why you can't just go off of that misleading website. They have plenty of stores listed on there, some of which have not even been open since 2018! Some other examples on that site are Grand Forks, ND, Rapid City, SD, Toms River NJ, Fostoria OH, among several others.
West Chester and Ephrata are closed or are closing. Wilkes Barre and Wind Gap are being considered to be next round.
Going off Kmart's website of locations and eliminating what I can find is shuttering/has shuttered already- I get a total of 13 open Kmarts in PA, unless I missed some of them as having closed already. They are: Berwick, Columbia, Ephrata, Erie, Kingston, Lebanon, Pittsburgh (w. view park drive), Walnutport, West Chester (paoli pike), Wilkes Barre, Williamsport, Willow Street, and Wind Gap.
@dvd 10 or 11 Kmarts is actually higher than some other bigger states, so it is (relatively overrepresented). NY and IL, are larger states that will have 7 and 1 Kmarts left, respectively. So probably expect PA to be proportionally trimmed of stores, as well.
Especially duplicate stores, like Kingston / Wilkes Barre PA, for example which are about 2 miles away from each other and are probably just drawing business away from each other. Another example like this would be Bellville, Kearny, and West Orange NJ, which are all in about a 2-3 mile radius of each other. So probably we can expect some trimming there.
PA only has 10 or 11 Kmarts left (and about as many Sears FLS). Not many they can pull the plug on to avoid finishing off one or the other brand in the state.
Any southern stores on list? South Carolina North Carolina Florida ? Our store in NC has little Halloween.
List is finalized and now the waiting game. The buzz around seems to be the Pa store's taking a major fall.
Does anyone think this entire fall started with Lacy? Oh, I know Sears was stumbling even before Lacy, but he is the one that really kicked Sears in the face. (32 years with the company). six of seven stores I have been with have closed. Really sad
HE makes the decision and notifies the liquidator(s) over a month before the closing is announced to anyone else. Assuming a round beginning either 1 October or 15 October the dates have already been finalized and now everyone is just waiting around for the formal announcement(s).
Wow! if Northridge goes the whole west coast is in jeopardy. Northridge is one of the biggest and best stores in the company.
Yes they do know. Yesterday we were told our Sears store in Northridge CA is closing. We were one of two main stores on the west coast and Los Angeles metro and a feature store for the whole company. Sears owned the property and the building. We have to be out of the building by the first of January 2020. So much for Christmas.
Hoffman knows already. Another round in October, could be as early as the 1st but I am not sure. But confirmed by someone in HE that October will see more store closures.
If you are PT, you will not receive a severance so while it may be hard for you to transition, start looking now. Best of luck.