Another 64 Kmart and 39 Sears stores are being closed this year as Sears Holdings continues to trim its retail properties in response to lagging sales.
Sears announced today that it "will continue to right size our store footprint in number and size" and "will continue to close some unprofitable stores as we transform our business model" to match consumer preferences.
The latest closings do not involve either of the Chattanooga Sears stores at Hamilton Place and Northgate malls or the remaining Kmart in Dalton, Ga.
Two months ago, Sears announced it was closing the Kmart on Cleveland Highway in Dalton, Ga., and another Kmart store in Tullahoma this month as part of a cost-cutting plan involving 63 stores.
Sears was once America's largest retailer in the United States, but the company has already cut the number of stores it operates to under 1,100, or only about half the 2,019 stores it operated in 2012. Kmart, which once had more than a dozen stores in the Chattanooga region, closed its last store in metro Chattanooga last year when it shut down the Fort Oglethorpe Kmart.
In October, Whirlpool Corp., one of Sears' biggest vendors and one of the biggest manufacturers in Cleveland, Tenn., said it would stop supplying brand appliances to Sears.
Sears declined to specify how many employees will be displaced by the latest round of store closings. But the company said it will offer displaced workers severance pay and the chance to apply for open positions at other stores.
The latest store closings include Kmarts in Crossville, Goodlettsville and Greeneville, Tenn., and in Statesboro, Albany and Jesup, Ga., and a Sears store in Centerville, Ga.
Liquidation sales at the stores being closed will begin next Friday, Jan. 12.
Contact staff writer Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.