TGT - Sears and Kmart Are Closing Even More Stores
Just one month ago, Transform Holdco, the new post-bankruptcy owner of Sears and Kmart, announced another round of store closures for the two struggling chains. Five Kmarts and 21 Sears stores are scheduled to shut their doors between late October and mid-November. This decision followed the company's move to close a handful of stores quietly over the past few months.
As it turns out, that was just the tip of the iceberg. By the end of August, Transform Holdco had initiated the store-closing process for about 100 more locations, according to USA Today. That action suggests that the Sears and Kmart chains could be close to collapsing entirely. That would put billions of dollars of sales up for grabs by competitors, ranging from J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) to Target (NYSE: TGT).
At the beginning of 2018, Sears Holdings operated about 1,000 stores between the Sears and Kmart nameplates. The remnant that survived bankruptcy was less than half that size. The store closures announced just since the beginning of August will leave the two chains with fewer than 300 full-line stores combined.