Sears Is Closing 26 More Stores, Including 2 in Texas

Sears said Wednesday it will close 26 Kmart and Sears stores in October and said there could be more as it's finding it difficult to operate in the "generally weak retail environment."The latest batch of closings included two Sears store in Texas: North East Mall in Hurst and at the former Mall of the Mainland in Texas City. Liquidation sales start August 15. Both of those stores have Sears Auto Centers which will close by the end of this month. North East Mall in Hurst is owned by Simon Property Group and it's one of the largest regional malls in Dallas-Fort Worth, also anchored by Dillard's, Dick's, J.C. Penney, Macy's and Nordstrom.Sears was the last department store at the closed Mall of the Mainland in Texas City. Other department store spaces in recent years have been turned into storage and a church.In Dallas-Fort Worth, Sears continues to operate department stores in The Parks in Arlington, Town East Mall in Mesquite and Hulen Mall in Fort Worth. Sears Holding emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year when its former CEO Eddie Lampert purchased about 400 Sears and Kmart stores in a $5 billion court approved deal. That company has been renamed TransformCo. and Lampert is no longer CEO but remains chairman.Here's what Sears said about its decision: "Over the past several months, we have worked hard to strengthen our vendor relationships, return our inventory levels to normal, and improve customer satisfaction and operations; however, we have faced a number of challenges returning our stores to sustainable levels of productivity, including differences with Sears Holdings over our purchase agreement and a generally weak retail environment. These challenges have unfortunately affected our performance and limited our strategic choices."Twitter: @MariaHalkias  Continue reading...