Sears Shedding More Than 500 Stores Nationwide as Part of Bankruptcy Proceedings
The list includes four Kmart outposts in New York City
By Nicholas Rizzi November 27, 2018 1:04 pm
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Sears plans to sell or auction off more than 500 of its best performing locations around the country as part of the 131-year-old retailer’s efforts to survive.
In a filing today in White Plains, N.Y. bankruptcy court, Sears—which also owns Kmart—included a list of stores it hopes to auction off or sell outright to avoid liquidation. It includes four Kmart locations in New York City: 1998 Bruckner Boulevard, which opened in 1999, and 300 Baychester Avenue, both in the Bronx, as well as 250 West 34th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 770 Broadway between East Eighth and East Ninth Streets in Manhattan. The Manhattan stores opened in 1996.
The Illinois-based retailer filed for Chapter 11 in October after years of losses and declines in sales, as Commercial Observer previously reported. The company listed $6.93 billion in assets compared with $11.34 billion in debt and announced plans to shutter more than 200 stores across the country.
Revenues have fallen 11 years in a row for Sears and in its most recent results, posted in September, reported a loss of $508 million with a 3.9 drop in sales. The retailer also needed a $350 million loan to keep its outposts open through the holiday season, Fortune reported.
Sears was founded in Minnesota in 1886 by Richard Sears as a watch company and after hiring Alvah Roebuck in 1887, moved to Chicago and began selling its wares via mail order catalogs. Its initial public offering in 1906 was the first in the country by a retailer and raised what would today amount to more than $1 billion.
