Sears is closing 80 more stores as it teeters on the brink of liquidation. The 130-year old retailer set a deadline of Friday for bids for its remaining stores to avert closing down completely.
The retailer that began out as a mail order catalog in the 1880s has been in a slow death spiral, hobbled by the Great Recession and then overwhelmed by rivals both down the street and across the internet.
The 80 stores are due to close by March. That’s in addition to 182 stores already slated for closure, which include the Sears store at Hamilton Place Mall in East Brainerd, scheduled to close Jan. 6, and the Northgate Mall Sears in Hixson, scheduled to close in early February.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. At the time of the filing, it operated about 700 Sears and Kmart stores.