Whoever said the phony was sent there to close it was apparently correct. This used to be a top performing store. http://www.ky3.com/content/news/Sears-store-in-Springfield-goes-on-the-auction-block-479530533.html
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Sounds like an SHC business plan. Let's take a building that has been paid for decades ago and sell that building to a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) (Seritage) that just so happens to be owned by the CEO of SHC. But keep the Sears in the building until you can find another tenant.
Now take that Sears, that hasn't paid a mortgage or rent payment in decades, and now make them pay rent at today's market prices per square foot to this other business (Seritage) owned by the same person who owns majority stake in SHC.
Then when that Sears doesn't make money, because the rent was high, close the store and re-rent to another company for even more money. And tell everyone that you tried to make it work but the weather, government, employees, media.... was against you. Yep, thats the plan
Of course, but it's not an automatic immediate thing like most people assume. Many locations have already been paying rent for several years, to Seritage. The whole company might not last several more years at this point.
A store that's been operating in its own building for years, and then has to start paying rent, will become less profitable. That means they'll all close sooner than the company cheerleaders would have us believe.
Auction doesn't mean closing any time soon. It and the other auction properties are all profitable-enough locations that Sears has promised potential buyers (real estate investors) that it is willing and able to pay lease rent to keep those stores operating for some time after the transaction. A building with a current paying tenant is more desirable for most commercial real estate investors than an empty building. Of course it's all going to come to an end nationwide at some point, but not necessarily any sooner for these locations than others. And you'd better hope not, because if this auction goes well, Sears wants to do more auctions later this year to sell off ALL the properties it still owns that still have not-yet-closing stores in them. Then all remaining operating Sears locations will be leases. (Those not heading to auction were already sold off to Seritage. Eddie decided to stop shuffling his own money around so the rest are being auctioned to other investors.)