Top

Sears Stores Closing

February 24, 2012 by · Comments Off on Sears Stores Closing 

Sears Stores Closing, Sears Holdings says it is closing six stores in Illinois, including the Sears store at Alton Square, after posting disappointing earnings.

The announcement is part of a plan to close a total of 15 Sears and Kmart stores, including nine of its Great Indoors stores.

In Illinois, the company plans to close Kmart stores in Peru, McHenry, Oak Lawn and Zion and a Great Indoors store in Lombard. A seventh store, a Sears store in Champaign, is being sold off. The list does not mention any of the other Kmart stores in the Alton area.

There is no immediate indication of when stores would close.

The closures will mean the loss of some 560 jobs as well as another 100 layoffs from Sears’ corporate headquarters.

According to a report in the Peoria Journal Star, Sears officials have not said exactly how many employees will be affected by the closings. But a typical store employs between 40 and 80 workers, according to Sears.

Last year, state lawmakers approved a package of tax incentives to entice the multinational corporation to keep its headquarters in suburban Hoffman Estates.

Under the deal, Sears will get a $15 million break on its taxes over the next decade as well as an extension on its property tax break.

Less than a month after that incentive package, Sears Holding Corp. announced it would close up to 120 Sears and Kmart locations because of poor sales. The initial list of 79 stores, released in late December, did not include any Illinois locations. But with no guarantees that Illinois stores would be spared, some lawmakers said at the time they felt betrayed.

Bottom