Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Obamanomics: Sears closing five Pennsylvania stores, 351 jobs to go away

10/21/2014


Sears.jpg
Black Friday shopping in Sears at the Capital City Mall in 2009. (Dan Gleiter)



Sears is closing five Pennsylvania stores in mid-January, affecting 351 jobs.
In the midstate, the closing of the Sears store at the Lebanon Plaza Shopping Center on Quentin Road will eliminate 51 jobs.

The other stores include Chambersburg, Bloomsburg, Frackville and Pittsburgh Mills, said Sears Holdings spokesman Howard Riefs.

The Pittsburgh store closing will affect 97 jobs; Frackville, 84; Chambersburg, 62; and Bloomsburg, 57.

Eligible employees will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores, Riefs has said.
A liquidation sale will begin Oct. 31, he said.

In August, Sears Holdings announced it is considering closure of additional stores, after having already announced the closure of 130 underperforming stores in fiscal 2014.

Net loss was $573 million in the second quarter of 2014, compared with $194 million in the prior year's second quarter, Sears announced.

The company said it is continuing to evaluate sales of Sears stores and auto centers, including its 51 percent share in Sears Canada, which operates 20 percent of stores.

In April, Sears topped the National Retail Investor's list of 10 national chains likely to close stores this year. In fiscal 2013, it said Sears' same-store sales fell 3.8 percent while revenue declined by $3.7 billion, and there was a $681 million loss on gross margins.

Store closures "are part of a series of actions we're taking to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model," Riefs said.

He said Sears hopes to retain a portion of sales associated with the store by focusing investment on what it calls "integrated retail," which includes shopping in stores, online and in the home, and "Shop Your Way," a loyalty program and social shopping community.

Sears was one of the original tenants in the Lebanon Plaza Shopping Center, which was built in 1966 and renovated in 1993.

Welco Realty, leasing agent for the shopping center, shows space will be available in January for 98,186 square feet of space at the shopping center.

In 2011, Sears closed between 100 and 120 stores nationwide, but none in the midstate. There are Sears stores in the Capital City Mall, Colonial Park Mall, York Galleria, North Hanover Mall and Park City.


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