Sears Holdings is closing 43 more stores in the U.S., but the Baxter Sears store is not affected.
Sears has been announcing store closings at different intervals since the beginning of the year. This latest announcement constitutes the fourth round of store closings. The retailer announced
it would shutter 35 Kmart locations and eight Sears stores.
The department-store chain's existential crisis included several rounds of store closures this year, now totaling more than 300. USA Today reported 265 closings previously.
Nearly all the stores in this latest round are slated to close in early October. The closings will bring Sears' store count to less than 1,140, down from 2,073 five years ago, Business Insider noted.
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"This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs," Sears CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post on the closures.
The Baxter Sears store, a Sears Hometown stores, is not part of the Sears Holdings, which are corporate-owned stores.
Jeff Skoglund, manager at the Baxter Sears, said questions from people about the store is now a daily event. But, Skoglund said, the Baxter store, which is privately owned, is not part of the closings. He said those closings have affected Sears Holdings mall stores in particular.
"We are planning to be here a long time," Skoglund said of the Baxter store's future.
Sears is one of many retail giants struggling to find its footing, or simply survive, amid a landscape dramatically transformed by a shift to online shopping and rise of Amazon, USA Today reported.
J.C. Penney said it will shutter 138 locations, roughly 14 percent of its stores, and give buyouts to 6,000 employees. The J.C. Penney store in Baxter is slated to close this month. Macy's plans to shut 68 stores. Radio Shack, which sought bankruptcy protection twice in two years, closed more than 1,000 locations since Memorial Day weekend and previously closed a store in Baxter. And one-time mall favorites Bebe, The Limited and Wet Seal have closed or are in the process of shuttering all of their storefronts.
Sears acknowledged in March there was "substantial doubt" it would survive on its own, though the company said its cost-cutting maneuvers and other retail strategies would greatly improve its chances of carrying on, USA Today reported, adding Lampert has blasted critics for treating Sears like it's dead.
In his blog post Friday, Lampert said the company would add small-format locations, though he did not provide specifics on the plan.
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"The company is close to meeting its previous target of $1.25 billion in cost cuts for the year, which includes the store closures and corporate layoffs," USA Today reported. "Sears also raised about $900 million by selling its Craftsman brand and is considering selling other assets."
