https://wvdn.com/25909/
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If I have counted correctly all of the stores listed at https://www.searshometownstores.com/store-list , there are 335 Sears Hometown stores. That is actually an increase from the last time I looked a few months ago, when I counted 314 stores.
To illustrate how unreliable that count is, I entered my zip code, and it told me about a store in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Yet if you ask it to list all stores in Rhode Island, it says there are none.
Yes after several years of the store owner losing everything, there was a massive closing of these stores , literally hundreds a year. Now that about 85% are gone, the survivors probably were the best stores operating, but inventory access has been a huge hardship. They are sourcing other inventory to find a way to keep the doors open.
Transformco has transformed the hometown model into the impossible stores. Impossible to keep stocked, impossible to make a profit, impossible to sell, impossible get out of….. they are being abandoned all over the place
The article notes that “in April 2011, the Ronceverte store was one of only 372 locations throughout the U.S. to receive this national recognition.”
Whereas in 2022, I doubt that there are still 372 Hometown stores open at all.