Sears closing last store in region

Store in Wilton Mall to close in February; liquidation to begin

The Capital Region’s last Sears department store, at Wilton Mall in Saratoga Springs, will close in February. It’s part of the latest wave of closures announced by Sears Holdings, the bankrupt parent company of Sears and Kmart.

Sears Holdings announced Thursday that 29 Sears locations and 11 Kmart stores around the country would be closing their doors in February 2019.

A Kmart in Huntington and a Sears in Watertown were the other New York locations expected to close.

It was previously announced that the Sears at Aviation Mall in Queensbury was also expected to close sometime this fall.

Liquidation sales at the 40 Kmart and Sears locations “are expected to begin late next week,” the company said.

Sears Holdings operated about 1,000 stores as recently as February, but has been shuttering what it calls “underperforming stores.”

When the company filed for bankruptcy last month, it said it only had about 400 stores that could turn a profit.

In its bankruptcy filing last month, Sears named 142 of its worst-performing stores that would shut down in the coming months. That was in addition to 46 stories already pegged for closure.

The Sears store at Colonie Center closed in September 2017, and remains vacant. A space had been carved out to accommodate the Capital Region’s first Whole Foods Market, which remains in operation.

Several smaller stores, including Sears appliance outlet stores and Sears Hometown Dealers, remain in operation. A Kmart store in Greenwich also has been spared, although the Kmart at Viaport Rotterdam will close at the end of this year.

Sears Holdings will have fewer than 500 Sears and Kmart stores left open after the additional closures.