Sears, Kmart to close third of remaining stores

The company that has acquired Sears and Kmart will close more than a third of its stores, the firm announced Thursday.

Transformco, which purchased nearly all of the assets of Sears Holdings Corp. in February of this year, said in a document that it would be closing 96 stores across the country “to streamline our operations.”

It will continue to operate 182 stores. 

The closing stores will have going out of business sales that are expected to begin Dec. 2. The stores are slated to close by February. 

“We will endeavor to create and deliver value through a strategic combination of our better-performing retail stores and our service businesses, brands and other assets, and expect to realize a significant return on our extensive portfolio of owned and leased real estate,” the company said. 

According to USA Today, more than 3,500 Sears and Kmart locations have shuttered in the last 15 years, resulting in the loss of about 250,000 jobs.