Sears Hometown Store in almost 100 locations are permanently shutting down

Sears Hometown Store is shutting a number of its outlets in the coming weeks, and it will be a permanent closure. The local destination for major appliances and home needs will close almost 100 locations throughout the United States.

As per CNN Business, the affected Sears Hometown and Outlet stores are located in 30 states and will lower the number of operating outlets to just over 500 in the U.S. The retail store is a spin-off of the Sears chain launched by Sears Holdings in 2012.

When the company filed for bankruptcy in 2018, the Sears retail outlets and Sears Hometown Stores were taken over by Transforco, that subsequently acquired Sears Holdings. The company closed down many locations in recent years, and most of the remaining ones are operated in small towns being run by franchisees or independent dealers of Transformco affiliates.

These are a lot smaller compared to the size of Sears department stores, which typically measures 100,000 square feet. The Sears Hometown only sits in areas between 6,000 to 8,000 square feet and mainly sells appliances and tools. Now dozens of Sears Hometown Stores are closing their doors and currently holding liquidation sales.

“A New Chapter Begins and unfortunately we must announce the closing of our Sears Hometown Store,” the branch in Luling, Louisiana wrote in a Facebook post. “It is not a decision that we have made lightly. We have loved all of our time that we have been able to spend with you over these last 10 years.”

The branch went on to express its gratitude to its customers and announced that the last day of the Sears Hometown Luling is on June 23. Apparently, the iconic retail outlets are slowly disappearing in the U.S. as Kmart, which was once also a very popular go-to for almost everything, has been closing its locations as well.

Axios reported that these closures matter because Sears and Kmart have already shut thousands of outlets, which led to job cuts of more than 250,000 over the last 17 years. Many states have also lost their favorite store brands. As of April, only three Kmarts are in operation in the continental U.S., while Sears Hometown customers are advised to check announcements on social media pages to confirm if the branch near them is still open.