Sears, Macy’s Announce Even More Store Closings

New York--Sears and Macy’s are continuing to shrink.

After closing hundreds of stores last year, the two already have announced the shuttering of additional locations in the new year.

Sears Holdings said Jan. 4 that it plans to close 103 more locations--64 Kmart stores and 39 Sears stores.

They will close between early March and early April, with liquidation sales starting as early as Jan. 12.

Sears did not respond to an email request from National Jeweler Monday asking how many employees would be affected by the closures, but it did say in a press release that impacted eligible associates will receive severance and also will have the opportunity to apply for open positions at other stores.

A full list of the locations closing this spring can be found online.

The move is part of the retailer’s efforts to streamline operations and reduce operating expenses. The company closed more than 400 stores in fiscal 2017.

In its third quarter results announced at the end of November, Sears reported a net loss of $558 million, compared with a net loss of $748 million in the third quarter 2016. Revenues for the period were $3.7 billion, compared with $5 billion the year earlier, with store closures attributing to about half the decline. Comps were down 15 percent in the quarter.

Meanwhile, Macy’s is set to close 11 more stores in 2018 as part of a previously announced plan to trim its brick-and-mortar footprint by 100 total locations and cut back on costs in 2018. (The locations, undisclosed up to now, can be found in this release.)

The 11 closings brings it to 81 stores closed so far. The remaining 19 locations and date of closure have yet to be announced.

The retailer said it has shut down a total of 124 stores since 2015. The closures are expected to help the company save as much as $300 million in fiscal 2018 but also will result in about 5,000 job cuts.

Macy’s announced the locations of the 11 stores that are closing when it reported its holiday sales results.

Comps were up 1 percent year-over-year in the November-December period.

This follows a 4 percent decline in same-store sales and a 6 percent decline in total sales in its third quarter when compared with the year earlier.