BATON ROUGE — After 24 years, Sears is closing its Baton Rouge location at the Mall of Louisiana, the last location in the state. The Baton Rouge Sears opened in 1997 when the Mall of Louisiana opened its doors for the first time.
So, are sears stores closing?
More Sears and Kmart stores will close in the coming months. Two years after Transformco acquired the struggling retailers out of bankruptcy in February 2019, seven Sears and three Kmart stores are liquidating with most closing by mid-November. SB360 Capital Partners is managing the store closing sales, according to the liquidation firm’s website.
This of course begs the inquiry “Is will Sears closing in 2021?”
Will close in spring 2021. Sears opened its Chicago Ridge Mall store, on the outskirts of the Windy City, in 1981. In addition to a 25-bay auto center, photo studio, and optical department, Chicago Ridge offered a new Sears Financial Center.
When we were researching we ran into the inquiry “Is the Sears in Pasadena TX closing?”.
SB360 Capital Partners is managing the store closing sales, according to the liquidation firm’s website, which includes a list of 33 stores. Some stores on the list are already closed including the Sears in Pasadena, Texas. A few stores announced their upcoming demise on their Facebook pages.
This begs the query “Why is Sears closing stores in Chicago Ridge?”
As competition intensified and sales dropped, Sears decided to focus on its retail business. In 1992, it divested its financial service divisions and ended its catalogue business. It even sold off its iconic Sears Tower headquarters building. After the Chicago Ridge store closes, only one location will remain in Chicagoland.
UPDATED: This story has been updated since it was first posted with additional Sears and Kmart stores slated to close. More Sears and Kmart stores are set to close in the next couple of months.
After the October 2018 bankruptcy filing by its parent company, Sears has continued on its path to retail oblivion. Late this week, Sears quietly posted “temporary store closing” positions at 10 of its remaining locations on the company’s website.
What happened to Sears in Louisiana?
Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October 2018 and closed hundreds of stores as it emerged from bankruptcy in February 2019. Before the bankruptcy Sears had eight full-size locations across Louisiana and five Kmart stores.
After the bankruptcy, there was only one Sears location in Louisiana and 15 smaller “hometown” franchised locations that sell appliances and hardware in places such as Baker, Luling, Opelousas, Bogalusa and Bayou Vista. Sears closed its store at Southland Mall in Houma in Houma in summer 2016. Houma’s Kmart on West Park Avenue closed that December.
What happened to the mall of Louisiana’s Department Stores?
The Mall of Louisiana last lost a department store anchor in 2005 with the closure of Mc. Rae’s, a chain that was sold to Belk by Saks. Dillard’s then acquired the Mall of Louisiana store from Belk and doubled its presence at the Mall of Louisiana with separate men’s and women’s stores.