Sears’ Texas City store to close, another casualty of internet age
The Sears at the Mall of the Mainland in Texas City will close its doors this fall, the latest casualty of changing consumer preferences and the rise of e-commerce.
Transform Holdco on Wednesday said the Texas City store would be included in the latest round of store closures that will shutter 26 Sears and Kmart locations in October. Another Texas store, at the North East Mall in Hurst, nearDallas, is also slated to close.
Transform, a company controlled by Eddie Lampert, Sears’ former chief executive and largest shareholder, acquired the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based retailer’s remaining assets, including 425 department stores, in a $5.2 billion deal at Sears’ bankruptcy auction earlier this year. Sears, the 126-year-old American retail icon that once had more than 3,800 department stores, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October and emerged in February with plans for smaller stores that sell to Sears’ strengths, such as appliances.
“Over the past several months, we have worked hard to strengthen our vendor relationships, re
turn our inventory levels to normal and improve customer satisfaction and operations,” the company said in a statement.
“However, we have faced a number of challenges returning our stores to sustainable levels of productivity, including differences with Sears Holdings over our purchase agreement and a generally weak retail environment. These challenges have unfortunately affected our performance and limited our strategic choices.”
“We’re disappointed Sears is leaving.” Jerome Karam, owner of the Mall of the Mainland
5 remain in Houston area
Sears, with mail- order roots thatmade it the forerunner to online giant Amazon, has shuttered more than 500 stores over the past four years, including locations inMemorial CityMall, West Oaks Mall, Central Mall in Porter, Westwood Mall and its longtime Midtown store.
The retailer years ago closed shop in Greenspoint Mall and The Woodlands Mall.
Five Sears stores remain in the Houston area: WillowbrookMall, North Shepherd, Deerbrook Mall, Macroplaza Mall in Pasadena and Parkdale Mall in Beaumont.
Transform said it would continue to evaluate its network of Sears and Kmart stores, adding it cannot rule out additional store closures in the near term. Eligible employees affected by the store closures will be offered severance, the company said.
“Our goal remains to return the company to profitability and preserve as many jobs as possible in the communities we serve,” Transform said in a statement.
Liquidation sales at the Texas City Sears are expected to begin around Aug. 15. The Sears Auto Center at the store will close in late August.
Redevelopment planned
Mall owners have long eyed Sears stores for redevelopment as the retailer has shuttered hundreds of locations in recent years.
Former Sears stores in the Houston area have become a Nordstrom store, in the case of The Woodlands Mall, and Rice University’s future start-up hub at the former Midtown store.
Earlier this year, Houston developer MetroNational announced it hired Fort Worthbased Trademark Property Co. to create a long-term master plan for the Memorial City Mall, including redeveloping the former Sears at the west Houston shopping center.
Sears was the last remaining department store at the Mall of the Mainland, which opened in 1991 with anchor tenants Dillard’s, Foley’s and J.C. Penney as well as junior anchor Palais Royal.
The mall evicted all of its interior tenants in 2014 after most of its major anchor tenants closed.
Jerome Karam, the owner of the Mall of the Mainland, said he plans to purchase and redevelop the Sears store, but declined to share his vision for the space.
The local attorney and developer has been redeveloping the mall, adding a High Altitude trampoline park, a World Gym and Stuttgarden Tavern.
“We’re going to look into it, of course, but we need to figure out what makes sense,” Karam said. “We’re disappointed Sears is leaving.”