Sears to close Westwood, Baybrook stores
Southwest Freeway and Baybrook stores will be shutting down in mid-September
The nationa’s oldest department store company plans to close two Houstonarea stores in mid-September and about 20 Sears and Kmart stores nationwide.
Sears, the nation’s oldest department store company, announced plans to close two of its 10 Houston-area stores on Friday, news that came as no surprise to nostalgic shoppers.
The company, which pioneered mail-order distribution of consumer goods, has fallen sharply in recent decades, beaten down by aggressive competitors and the growing might of online retailing.
Sears said in a statement that it was “strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity” and that it had “accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores.” In mid-September, Sears stores will close at 9570 Southwest Freeway in Westwood and at Baybrook Mall in Friendswood. Liquidation sales begin at both locations on June 30.
Those closures are part of a company move to shutter 20 Sears and Kmart locations nationwide. That follows the announced closure of 150 Sears stores in January. In March, Sears acknowledged “substantial doubt” about its ability to survive in the current commercial landscape. The admission was only the latest news to fuel concerns about the future of the
heavily indebted company.
At Baybrook, a 167,000-square-foot Sears sits down a quiet corridor, around the corner from a bustling food court and a jampacked Apple store. Its tan brick Brutalist exterior flags the two-story store as an original anchor of the 1978 mall that has expanded dramatically since. Customers there called Sears outdated, a destination of habit for older Americans.
“For all my 45 years, my dad has taken us to Sears,” Joe Flores said outside the store. “It’s hard to see one of America’s icons go away.”
Sears catalog memories
Mike and Kevin Williams, father and son, strolled through the store to get to the mall, but they weren’t shopping at Sears; they use the frequently empty Sears parking lot to pull up close to an otherwise crowded mall.
But Mike Williams, 58, from Friendswood and an almost 40-year shopper at Baybrook Mall, thinks fondly of the chain, recalling his childhood in Cape May, N.J., when he waited eagerly each winter for the Sears Christmas catalog to arrive so he could parse that year’s toy selection.
Now, like a majority of other customers queried Friday, Williams shops at Sears for tools or lawn mowers, and not much else. The same oldfashioned vibes that make Sears seem stodgy to some also mean it is the only major store where Williams can find American-made tools, he said.
“Some of us old guys still try to support stuff made in America,” he said.
The rest of the selection was of little interest.
“You don’t really buy clothing at Sears anymore,” said Kevin Williams, 21.
Merchandise galore
The store offers a wide selection, from men’s suits to swimsuits to power washers, auto parts, mattresses, toaster ovens, dish sets, jewelry, freezers and shoes.
“I don’t think they’ve kept their clothing up with the savvy styles of the younger generations,” said Janeece Lory, 65, a 20year Baybrook shopper from League City. “They just never updated.”
Terry Hayman, 62, of Deer Park, has shopped at Baybrook since it opened. The mall is getting too big and too busy for her tastes, she said.
Indeed. Despite the gloom hanging over Sears, Baybrook Mall seems resilient, unlike other shopping malls nationwide that have fallen victim to changing shopping habits that have challenged their traditional anchor tenants, such as Sears and Macy’s. Baybrook Mall executives declined to comment.
In a statement, Sears said it hoped to retain the business of some of the customers from its two closed locations through its online shopping portals.
Eligible employees at the two axed locations will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at other local Sears and Kmart stores.
“I’ve been shopping at Sears since I was a little girl,” said Debra Mackin, 63, of Alvin. “Will I miss it? No.”