Sears Laying Off More Than 7,000 Workers and Closing Over 100 Stores

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Retailer struggling to hang on, cuts stores and employees before the holidays.

Sears Holdings will shed 63 Kmart Stores, 34 Sears stores, 34 Sears Auto Centers, 1 Kmart Distribution center, and 1 Sears Product repair facility, according to Seeking Alpha. Although Sears has made plans for leasing thousands of its open and operating facilities, it also has stated that its physical stores remain an integral part of its transformation, and that it will be hiring staff for the holidays in stores that stay open.

Many of the stores marked for closure are in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Indiana, according to Seeking Alpha, but closures are also set for stores in Alabama, California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

The closures, complied from liquidation notices and employees, are scheduled between November and January, , and could potentially affect up to 7,048 employees.

The company has seen falling sales in recent years and closed 75 Kmart stores and 21 Sears stores in the first six months of 2014.  The closures appear to be an effort to curtail losses for the Sears holding and to turn around the brand.

As reports of the closures mount, Sears spokesman stated in an email to USA Today that the store count and closures “isn’t accurate,” but refrained from providing any specific information to correct them.

"As we stated in our (second quarter earnings report), we disclosed that we would be closing unprofitable stores as leases expire and in some cases will accelerate closings when it is economically prudent. And that we would consider closing additional stores during the remainder of the year,'' Riefs said in his email. "Make no mistake, we believe the store will continue to play an integral role in our transformation, however, if a store is not generating a profit, it is straightforward that the store should be considered for closure."

"We will update our store count in our (third-quarter) financial results announcement later this year," Riefs told USA Today in the email. "All of these closing stores have been previously notified, and their associates and teams advised."

When USA Today pressed the issue further, Riefs responded in a subsequent email: "We're not going to go store by store since we don't do that outside our quarterly results."

Daily Finance reported that Sears has stated that it would lease out seven stores, including the one at Pennsylvania's King of Prussia Mall, to discount fashion chain Primark for an undisclosed amount.

Sears had 1,077 Kmart stores and 793 Sears stores in the United States as of Aug. 2. The company had 226,000 U.S. employees as of Feb. 1.