NEW YORK (AP/WOWO) – Sears will close more stores as sales plunge and losses grow.
The struggling retailer said Thursday that it has identified about 100 stores that are no longer turning profits, and 72 of those locations will be shuttered soon.
Sears Holdings Corp., based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, lost $424 million, or $3.93 per share, in its first quarter.
It earned $245 million, or $2.29 per share, a year earlier, a quarter of that included a $492 million gain tied to the sale of the Craftsman brand.
Revenue tumbled more than 30 percent to $2.89 billion, with store closings already under way contributing to almost two thirds of the decline.
Three of the 72 stores being closed are in Indiana. An economics professor from Ball State University believes the closures will have a bigger impact on Muncie than in Castleton and Lafayette.
“For Castleton and Lafayette it shouldn’t be much of a problem. Both of those are growing and I think the loss of Sears represents a shift in consumer patterns that will be replaced by some other retailer in those locations,” says Dr. Mike Hicks, the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University.
“For Muncie, which is in decline, I think it’s a bit more problematic. And it comes on the heals of closure of other stores in that mall, so I think that put the mall and retail on the east side of Muncie in some peril,” according to Dr. Hicks.
1 comment
I saw this coming long ago. Quit shopping there because the customer service had gotten so bad. Sure, not all the sales associates were inept but a majority were. The good ones were always busy helping people. The others not so much. It’s sad. Prior to the poor service I really liked shopping there too.