Looking at today's press release I don't think anyone has paid much attention to the incredibly shrinking store portfolio... KMart went from 896 to 624 in one year! 30% of the store count GONE. Many more quiet closings than I even thought... 18 months or less the format won't exist, bankruptcy or not.
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Wow! After today 300 to 400 stores may be conservative. Some of today's announced stores are profitable.
@1ivr - When did Lampert say he was closing between 300-400 stores. I don't believe management has ever mentioned a number of stores that was to be closed this year. I'm not saying that is an incorrect number. I have just not seen it reported anywhere.
Wikipedia had the KMart peak number at 2,171. Sears would be well over 1,000 if you counted Sears Canada.
Eddie said last winter he was going to close 300 to 400 stores in 2017, primarily Kmarts and some Sears. So far this year it is over 200. Obviously there are more closings coming and they aren't only the poorly performing stores. He has closed some of the better ones also because he needed the money. All stores are fair game to close with absolutely no warning. One of the Sears stores closed recently was profitable in a good location.
I expect 13-14% of the stores will be closed this year.
I have worked here for 20+ years, and I don't remember ever having 1000 Sears Stores. At the height we had a little over 900 with Sears Grand, Sears Essentials, and full line stores. But they always said, even back then, that all the stores were not profitable. I don't know anything about the Kmart stores and the history there.
It obviously is never good to close stores as people are affected which isn't good, but I really don't think it's that surprising.
Does anyone remember when the main portal page on the office computers had a store counter in the upper right? I think the last time it was still up, there were a bit over 1000 stores. I guess it got too depressing for the people at corporate to see it dropping so fast, so they got rid of that page altogether.