Wolfchase Galleria Sears to close after bankruptcy filing

The Sears location at Wolfchase Galleria mall in Cordova will close for good by the end of the year following a bankruptcy filing by the Sears Holdings Corp. on Monday.

The Cordova department store, which houses a Sears Optical, Sears Automotive and a Lands’ End shop, is among 142 stores to shut down nationwide in the latest round of store closures.

Bankruptcy will allow Sears to “strengthen its balance sheet, enabling the Company to accelerate its strategic transformation, continue right sizing its operating model, and return to profitability,” Eddie Lampert, the former Sears CEO who recently submitted his resignation, said in a statement.

“Our goal is to achieve a comprehensive restructuring as efficiently as possible, working closely with our creditors and other debtholders, and be better positioned to execute on our strategy and key priorities,” he added.

Three other Tennessee Sears locations will close including one on Kingston Pike in Knoxville, one on Wilma Rudolph Boulevard in Clarksville and one on Hamilton Place Boulevard in Chattanooga.

A Kmart store on Maynardville Pike Northeast in Knoxville will also close.

A spokesperson for Wolfchase Galleria did not comment on why the store is closing, what losing Sears will mean for the mall or what will take the place of Sears.

This is the second Sears to close in the Memphis area in recent years. In 2016 the Sears at 4570 Poplar in the Laurelwood shopping center shut its doors. That store and auto center had 109 employees.

Earlier this year, the company also announced another 46 stores would close. Those stores are still on track to shut down by November. Tennessee was spared from closures in that announcement.

The mass closures come as companies like FedEx announce waves of seasonal hiring to help manage the growth of online shopping and e-commerce ahead of the holiday season. FedEx will hire 55,000 new employees nationwide, 3,800 of which will be at its Memphis hub.

Sears called the 142 stores just announced and the 46 others already slated for closure “unprofitable.” A liquidation sale will begin at the Cordova Sears as well as the other locations soon.

With this announcement, the only remaining Memphis-area Sears will be the location inside Southland Mall in Whitehaven.

Charisse Jones and Nathan Bomey from the USA TODAY contributed to this report.