“While our past practice has been to keep marginally performing stores open while we worked to improve their performance, we no longer believe that to be the appropriate action in this environment.”-Lou D’Ambrosio, CEO of Sears Holdings
Sears Holdings, which owns Sears and Kmart stores, said this year’s holiday sales sucked big time! They’re claiming a big drop in business compared to last year (as much as 5.2%), and they just can’t afford to keep their “marginally performing” stores open.
The cities of Chubbuck and Pocatello, Idaho, are home to such marginally performing stores.
Sears at the Pine Ridge Mall in Chubbuck
The Sears is located in the Chubbuck Pine Ridge Mall, and has never done well (I used to work for the mall before it was sold to a company out of Chicago, Illinois). Two other ‘anchor’ stores, that were doing better than Sears left the mall a few years ago, and many people around here have been wondering why the Sears is still open. Well, it might finally be curtains.
Fred Meyer at the former Pocatello Mall location
The Sears in Chubbuck used to be located in the old Pocatello Mall, but that mall went down the toilet in the late 1990s, and has since been torn down and replaced with a Fred Meyer dominated strip mall. Even the new Fred Meyer strip mall suffered the demise of the Gottshalks store a few years ago.
The vacant Gottschalks, in Pocatello, Idaho
In Pocatello, the Kmart has been struggling for years, the customer foot traffic has never come close to what the Chubbuck WalMart, or the Pocatello Fred Meyer gets. After Sears and Kmart merged to form Sears Holdings (and the Kmart bankruptcy), the Pocatello Kmart was spared from the many closings of Kmarts around the country. But this might be the writing on the wall for the Pocatello Kmart.
Big Kmart, with small sales, in Pocatello
Even though business for Sears and Kmart continues to crash, a recent customer satisfaction survey, by Strategic Resource Group, showed that dedicated Sears/Kmart shoppers were happy with the service. SRG also thinks most Kmart closings will take place outside the North East/Great Lakes region, and that means Idaho is a target.
Speaking of Target, Target and WalMart are the main reasons why Sears and Kmart are going down; they just can’t compete. (do the economic analysts ever consider the fact that we “consumers” no longer have the cash or credit to support so many retail businesses?)
For Sears and Kmart stores that will remain open, big time cuts are planned. Sears Holdings wants to cut $300 million, just in inventory. They hope to cut another $200 million in ‘fixed’ costs (that’s industry code which includes employees and employee benefits).
Happy New Year!