“Ultimately, the liquidity provided by the REIT capital raise cannot address the underlying poor performance of its retail business, and our credit analysts believe that Sears will need to close hundreds of additional stores.”-JPMorgan Chase

“If its goal is to survive as a retailer, Sears will need to get better at selling the stuff on its shelves, rather than just its remaining assets.”-Justin Lahart, Heard on the Street

The new REIT that Eddie Lampert will create, supposedly to save Sears, will involve ‘selling off’ 254 stores.  Lampert hopes that at least on paper it will raise $2.6-billion USD for his Sears Holdings.  Retail analysts seem to all agree that even more stores will have to be shutdown or sold off.

In Frackville, Pennsylvania, the Schuylkill Mall Kmart was set to shutdown in October, but Sears Holdings has decided to shut it down  two months earlier, in June.  The store manager told local news media that Sears Holdings refused to give “any reason as to why”.  The lease on the property is in effect until October, but valid leases haven’t stopped Sears Holdings from continuing to pay rent on properties its vacated in the past.

update, 25 March 2015: taxpayers bailed out Sears!