Less than six months after closing the doors on 78 stores nationwide, Kmart announced it will be shuttering six more Tennessee locations.
“We can confirm that we are making the difficult, but necessary decision to close these Kmart stores in Tennessee,” said Howard Riefs, Sears Holdings director of Corporate Communications.
The following stores are slated for closure:
2491 Murfreesboro Pike in Nashville
333 N. Lowry St. in Smyrna
2780 Guthrie Highway in Clarksville
5380 Highway 153 in Hixson
201 Austin Peay in Memphis
370 S. Illinois Ave. in Oak Ridge
The stores are slated to close permanently in mid-December and the liquidation sales will begin Thursday.
“It’s important for you to know that until then, the stores will remain open for customers,” Riefs said.
He added Sears Holdings has taken steps to evaluate all its stores according to “store space and productivity,” which is leading the company to “accelerate the closing of unprofitable stores as we have previously announced.”
This round of closures comes after 78 Sears and Kmart stores were closed in April, including the Murfreesboro store, and lackluster financial reports through the first two quarters of 2016.
According to a press release, Kmart and Sears Domestic comparable store sales declined 3.3 percent and 7.0 percent in the second quarter of 2016.
Sears Holdings also received a cash infusion of $300 million from ESL Investments for additional debt financing secured by a lien against its inventory, receivables and other working capital.
According to a USA Today report in late August, sales Sears and Kmart locations open at least a year fell 5.2 percent, better than the 5.9 percent drop in the first quarter and the 10.8 percent drop in the second quarter last year. Total revenue fell to $5.7 billion from $6.2 billion in the same quarter last year; analysts expected sales of $5.4 billion.
The troubling financial statements led Moody’s analysts to downgrade the company’s liquidity rating last Wednesday.
Riefs said he made the announcement with a heavy heart.
“We often hear from our members who are disappointed when we close a store, but our Shop Your Way membership platform, websites and mobile apps allow us to maintain these valued relationships long after a store closes its doors,” he said.
The company hopes it can retain loyal customers who can visit the remaining Kmart locations in Tennessee.
Link to the original article from The Daily News Journal: http://on.dnj.com/2ddKLCS
