Two more Kmart stores to close in Chattanooga area

Two more Kmarts in the Chattanooga area are targeted for closing as parent Sears Holdings unveiled a new plan to shut down stores.

A Kmart in Dalton, Ga., at 1203 Cleveland Road and another store in Tullahoma, Tenn., at 1806 N. Jackson St. are to close in late January 2018, according to a new list of store closures of Kmart and Sears stores.

A Kmart at 1308 W. Walnut Ave. in Dalton will remain open, a store employee said.

Liquidation sales will begin as early as Thursday at the closing stores. The Dalton and Tullahoma closings were among 45 Kmart and 18 Sears stores announced by the struggling retailer. Employees were informed last Thursday.

“Sears Holdings continues its strategic assessment of the productivity of our Kmart and Sears store base and will continue to right size our store footprint in number and size,” the company said in a statement.

The company said it will continue to close unprofitable stores as it transforms its business model so that its physical store footprint and its digital capabilities match needs.

Sears Holdings closed its only remaining Kmart in metropolitan Chattanooga in September when it shut down its Fort Oglethorpe store on Battlefield Parkway. At the same time, the Sears store at Walnut Square Mall in Dalton also closed.

Sears continues to operate

stores at Hamilton Place and Northgate malls in Chattanooga.

Sears shut down its store in the Bradley Square Mall in Cleveland, Tenn., and other outlets in Athens, Sweetwater and Maryville in East Tennessee last year. Kmart, which once operated nearly a dozen stores in the Chattanooga area, closed its Hixson store last year after previously shutting down area stores on Highway 58, East Brainerd and Signal Mountain Road in Chattanooga and other stores in Cleveland and Athens.

The closures will trim the number of Sears and Kmart stores across the country to about 1,200, down from 2,073 five years ago.

Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress. com or 423-757-6318.