A Map of Sears and Kmart Store Closures This Year
Kmart was one of the biggest retail stores in the 1980s and 90s. After declaring bankruptcy in 2002, Kmart merged with Sears to form Sears Holdings Corporation in 2004. On October 15, 2018 Sears Holdings Corporation filed for bankruptcy leading to a nationwide closure of Kmart and Sears stores. They got a lifeline when their chairman won the auction to buy the company’s remaining assets earlier this year. But this has had very little effect on the sears and kmart store closures as it has only increased since then.
Insights Summary
- Kmart closed 120 stores across the country in 2019.
- Kmart closed all their stores in 7 states this year.
- 82 Sears stores closed down in 2019.
- Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states which have not seen any Kmart and Sears store closures this year.
You can download Kmart and Sears store location data and more from our data store.
Kmart Store Closure Map
The graphic above shows Kmart store closures this year.
Kmart went from having 333 stores across the US in January 2019 to 213 stores in May 2019. 19 Kmart stores closed in California making it the state with the most number of store closures. While, Pennsylvania and New York faced 11 and 9 store closures making them the second and third state with most Kmart store closures.
Kmart closed all their stores in Missouri, Louisiana, Kansas, Georgia, Utah, Nebraska, Arkansas between January and May 2019.
North Dakota, Minnesota, Idaho, Texas, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado are states which did not see any Kmart store closures during this period.
Sears Store Closure Map
The graphic above shows the decline in the number of Sears stores across the country.
Sears has 1,151 stores as on May 2019 and has closed 82 stores in the country since February 2019. They closed 11 stores in Michigan, making it the state with most Sears store closure. Texas and Pennsylvania had second most number of Sears closures with 9 store closures in 2019.
17 states did not see any Sears store closure this year.
Future of Retail Stores
More than 7,000 stores have announced closures in 2019, and the number is expected to increase over the coming months. The increased tariffs on Chinese goods means that textiles, apparel, shoes, home goods, etc. are set to become more expensive which could lead to more store closures later this year. On the other hand, Amazon is looking to expand its newly acquired Whole Foods by moving into stores recently vacated by Sears and Kmart.
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