It remains unclear how many, if any, Sears or Kmart stores in Maryland may close after the parent company of the two retail brands announced plans on Tuesday to shutter 100 to 120 of its under-performing stores.
Sears Holdings Corp. announced the planned closings while noting that comparable store sales at Kmart were down 4.4 percent for the eight-week quarter-to-date ending Dec. 25, and for Sears, sales were down 6 percent through the same period.
The company, which has more than 4,000 stores in North America, reports sales are down 5.2 percent overall for the quarter-to-date, and down 2.6 percent for the year-to-date. Sears Holding stock ended the trading day at $33.38, down more than 27 percent from its opening price.
A list of which stores are to be closed will be listed on www.searsmedia.com when a final decision is made.
Company officials blame sluggish sales at Kmart on a decline in electronics and clothing sales along with lower than anticipated layaway sales. Sears’ decline was blamed on lower electronics and home appliance sales.
"Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model," said Sears Holding Corp. CEO Lou D'Ambrosio in a statement.
"These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail - at the store, online and in the home."
The closings are just the latest step the retailer has taken in recent years as it attempts to keep pace with rivals such as Walmart, and Best Buy. Sears Holdings Corp.’s has struggled since it was founded in 2005 when Sears and Kmart merged.
In Baltimore and Harford counties, there are Sears stores at Eastpoint Mall, White Marsh Mall, , Security Square Mall and . There are also Kmart stores located in and North Point.
In Bel Air, some Sears shoppers were already aware of the announcement Tuesday afternoon.
Patty Hill, of Bel Air, who was leaving the store with bag in hand, said the Harford Mall Sears location is where her family buys all of their appliances.
"I would be really disappointed [if the store closed], I'm not quite sure where I would buy the things they offer," Hill said, later adding, "I would miss it."
Even if the Bel Air location were to close, Hill expressed loyalty regarding the Sears brand.
"If there was another Sears close by, I would go there," Hill said.
Hill said she shops at Sears frequently, and she's not the only one.
"My mom got every single one of my Christmas presents here," Kristen Palm of Bel Air said.
Palm said she likes the shoe selection at Sears.
Gladys Palm, who was shopping with the younger Palm, said that while she doesn't shop much these days, it would be a shame for the store to close.
"It would be missed," Gladys Palm said.
While some customers may maintain loyalty to the brands, others question Sears and Kmart's futures in an increasingly competitive retail marketplace.
“This news tells me that this merger has been a failure,” said Morris Segall, president of the Baltimore-based SPG Trend Advisors, an economic and capital market, research and consulting firm. “Kmart might be a brand whose time has come and past while Sears has not been able to establish where it sits in the current marketplace.
“This announcement will have a negative impact on the economy with thousands of people likely to lose their jobs at a time when we are desperately trying to create them. At a time when holiday shopping appears to be on the rise, it seems like people have just passed over Sears and Kmart.”
According to a Sears Holding news release, the store closures will generate between $140 million to $170 million from inventory sales with additional cash coming in from the sale or sublease of the closed store locations. The retailer also projects it will “record a non-cash charge of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter,” the release continued.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258 71% of federal expenditures are used to provide; a myriad of programs from food stamps to reimbursing states for school lunch costs, welfare, medicare, medicaid, social security, benefits including 100% coverage for health care for federal retirees, educational reimbursements and costs of running the Dept. of Education which wasn't even created until 1980 and which has overseen the continuing slide in minimum achievement, and of course interest of the debt we've piled up borrowing all this money to keep the social safety net in tact; even in cases where abject obvious fraud is rampant. It took far more than a decade...it took incremental changes to the idea of what the role of the federal government ought to be over decades...beginning at the turn of the last century and accelerating to the mess we see today.
Regardless, Bart's already covered my planned response in short form. George W. Bush ALONE accounts for almost half of our current national deficit. No joking. Between the two wars we never needed, and the Bush Tax Cuts which alone comprise 10% of our debt... Clinton gets the assist in his direct responsibility for causing both the housing bubble and for greasing the skids (along with Republican leaders in Congress) that led to all of our jobs going overseas. You see Karl, in my previous response, I was talking about the recession we're dealing with and how Obama's not to blame for it. You - and only you - decided to change the argument to our national debt and then claim I'm misinformed. Also, how exactly am I blindly partisan when I'm blaming both Bush and Clinton? Just stop.
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm Having debt isn't a bad thing. In fact, debt to a reasonable degree is good. However, when it baloons to just about 100% of GDP in the course of a decade...that's not so good.
The reason European countries are in the shape they are in is because of their Debt to GDP ratio. Respectfully, you seem to still ignore the fact that, when Clinton left office, our national debt was about 6 trillion. Our debt to GDP ratio was excellent. We actually agree on the fact we've got too much debt. I mean I think anyone with a high school education can figure that much out. We just don't agree with what actually caused the debt to get this high. I've provided a direct debt link that is irrefutable. Your counterarguments are on tangents based on your own personal agenda - which is reducing government spending (in general). Different argument from where we started. I actually am a big believer in smaller federal government and more state fiscal responsibilities. This is a whole different tangent though, a discussion for a different time :)
Greece's Debt to GDP ratio: 130%. Italy's Debt to GDP ratio: 119%. The US is at 93%. France is at 84%. UK is at 77%, Germany 75%. Spain actually clocks in at a healthy 60% Debt to GDP ratio. They are an exception to the rule. I'm not going to pretend to know the economic issues of Spain though. Keeping up with our own is more then enough side work.
http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/17/news/fortune500/sears_kmart/ & they are closing about 3% of their total number of stores
Bill, I agree with you on all comments. The last statement is the inference I was making in my 10:53am post this morning.
If you don't believe that having a reasonable amount of debt isn't healthy, then I guess we're done because I prefer to live in reality.
Both companies, especially K-Mart are behind the times. It seems to me that Wal-Mart better watch their P's & Q's. They could be next. I have noticed their service and quality of products slipping lately.
Here's a list of the used to be businesses that are no more. Braeger Gutman's, Cooks, Epstein's, Bon-Ton, Garfinckel's, Hecht's, Hochschild Kohn's, Hutzler's, S. Klein, Lazarus, Peskins, Stewart's
They had an automotive, food, food court and anything you could think of. That problem was the retail grocers union. After a few employee strikes they went out of business. It was a shame because they were an excellent place to shop. Another store which went under was E.J. Korvette.