Sears in the DeSoto Square mall will close by the end of the year
The Sears that has long stood as a cornerstone of the DeSoto Square mall in Bradenton is on the chopping block as the department store filed for bankruptcy protection Monday.
Sears Holdings, the company which operates Kmart stores as well as Sears, will close 142 unprofitable stores by the end of the year.
This new round of closures comes in addition to 46 previously announced store closings which are expected to be complete by November.
According to Sears Holdings, the Bradenton location of the department store is one of six Florida locations slated to close. The others are in Lakeland, Melbourne, Fort Walton Beach, Ocala and Panama City. Kmart locations in Gainesville and Miami also will close.
The Sears in DeSoto Square mall has survived previous rounds of closings announced by the company.
The number of associates impacted by the new round of closings is not available, according to Sears Holdings communications director Howard Reifs.
Human resource department associates at the DeSoto Square store had no comment on the closing.
Several prominent anchor stores have come and gone during the mall’s time, including Maas Brothers, Burdines and Belk Lindsey. The most recent departures were Dillard’s in 2009 and Macy’s in 2014.
Sears is one of two anchor stores to persist since the mall opened in the 1970s, the other being J.C. Penney.
DeSoto Square mall was purchased by Madison Properties USA Southeast Region for $25 million in 2017.
As for Sears, the question now is whether a smaller version of the company that once towered over the American retail landscape can be viable. Sears, which started as a mail order catalog in the 1880s, has been on a slow march toward extinction as it lagged far behind its peers and incurred huge losses over the years.
At its peak, the operator of Sears and Kmart had 4,000 stores in 2012 but will now be left with a little more than 500.
“This is a company that in the 1950s stood like a colossus over the American retail landscape,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultancy. “Hopefully, a smaller new Sears will be healthier.”
Others don’t share Johnson’s optimism.
“That a storied retailer, once at the pinnacle of the industry, should collapse in such a shabby state of disarray is both terrible and scandalous in equal measure,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, in a note published Monday. “In our view, too much rot has set in at Sears to make it viable business.”
Even President Donald Trump weighed in on Sears’ collapse, calling it “a shame.”
“Sears, Roebuck, when I was growing up, was the big deal. And it’s very sad what happened, very, very sad,” he said to reporters on Monday outside of the White House. But Trump added that many of the Sears’ sites will be put to “good use” and mean a lot of jobs.
The company has struggled with outdated stores and complaints about customer service even for its once crown jewels: major appliances like washers and dryers. That’s in contrast with chains like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s, which have been enjoying stronger sales as they benefit from a robust economy and efforts to make the shopping experience more inviting by investing heavily in remodeling and de-cluttering their stores.
Sears Holdings will close 77 Sears stores and 65 Kmart stores near the end of the year, and liquidation sales are expected to begin shortly.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
This story was originally published October 15, 2018 at 1:40 PM.