Sears, a renowned chain of departmental stores in the United States, is reportedly closing 96 of its Sears and Kmart stores across 30 states by February of next year. The company is continuing a trend that has been growing over the past few months.

Reports cite, the company would now operate across 182 stores in the United States, which has dropped down from the nearly 700 stores the company once had under its name before it filed for its bankruptcy in October 2018. Liquidation sales of the 96 stores would begin on December 2.

The company’s parent organization, Transformco reportedly announced that it gathered $250 million in new investment, which is intended to foster the company’s turnaround after it acquired all the assets of Sears Holding Company during the company’s bankruptcy proceedings in 2019.

The continued downfall of Sears and Kmart is the new setback for company financier and billionaire-turned CEO Eddie Lampert, who monitored the retailers for over a decade, trying to merge and turn around their brands. However, these efforts saw failure as the retailer filed for bankruptcy protection in 2018.

Sears Holdings Corp. witnessed several consecutive years of losses and has shut over a hundred stores under the leadership of Mr. Lampert. Though, even after the downfall, the company was still among the biggest brick and mortar stores to file for chapter 11.

Transformco stated that since purchasing all the Sears Holdings Corp. assets in February, the company has faced a harsh retail environment and several other challenges.

Transformco added that it would continue to evaluate its Sears and Kmart footprint, to keep it consistent with the company’s overall service and retail strategy.

Sears and Kmart were seen to be struggling over the past few weeks to remain in the competition with Amazon and few other box retailers quick to implement technology, like Walmart.

Recently, the company purchased Sears Hometown, a chain of independently operated and owned, smaller stores that provide home products like sporting goods, appliances and tools, with hopes that this could help it better its fortunes.

If not anything else, Transformco stated that it hopes to gain a substantial return on its extensive portfolio of leased and owned real estate.

Earlier in August Sears had announced the closure of 26 stores, with the 21 Sears stores and five Kmart stores making up the number.

Source credit: https://www.eastidahonews.com/2019/11/sears-to-close-another-96-stores-include-jackson-kmart/