Dozens of Kmart and Sears stores closing; None in Nebraska

Sears will close at least 63 more stores as sales plunge and losses mount. In April, Colorado Springs’ last Kmart, northwest of Nevada Avenue and Fillmore Street, was closed by Sears Holdings.

A Kmart store at 9881 W. 58th Ave.in Arvada was on the list of closures the retailer released Thursday afternoon.

Sears has stores in Auburn, Braintree, Brockton, Cambridge, Fall River (outlet), Hanover, Holyoke (both an outlet and a store), Hyannis, Leominster, Marlborough, Natick, North Attleboro, North Dartmouth, Peabody, Saugus, Shrewsbury (outlet), Springfield and Taunton. Shares closed down another 40 cents apiece, or almost 13 percent, on Thursday. So at this point, 275 stores could be set to close this year.

The 72 stores were among 100 Sears identified that are no-longer turning a profit.

CEO Edward Lampert called it a “challenging quarter”.

The company had a total of 894 stores at the end of its first quarter, 381 fewer than it had at the same time previous year.

This news comes after Sears Holdings said on January 4 that it would close 64 Kmart and 39 Sears locations by April of this year. The next closest is in Bradenton.

In January, the retailer announced that it would be shuttering 150 unprofitable Sears and Kmart locations.

The Sears location at the Fashion Square Mall in Saginaw will remain open. The company had 894 stores as of May 5, down from 1,980 stores in 2013. Amazon began selling Sears’s Kenmore brand of ovens, washers and other appliances previous year.

Sears also posted a quarterly loss of $424 million and said store closings already underway contributed to a drop of more than 30 percent in revenue.

The closures come amid declining sales, with revenues falling 31 percent in the most recent quarter.

The company also has announced plans to sell its Kenmore line of appliances and partner with Amazon.com to sell tires in an effort to stay afloat financially. It began opening retail storefronts in the 1920s.

‘We believe these initiatives, among others, will help us to strengthen the Company and better position it for the future, ‘ he said.

Liquidation sales are expected to begin June 14, and closures are expected to begin in September.