Is there anyone left who still believes that Kmart and Sears has been anything other than a real estate play for Edward Lampert? And yet, some of the company's recent tactics are puzzling.
If the answer is "No," what's the point of Sears Holdings seemingly going out of its way to avoid attention to store closings?
As reports by the Los Angeles Times, the Consumerist and others have pointed out, other retailers planning to close stores, including Finish Line (150) and Macy's (40), have issued national press releases to announce their intentions. Even J.C. Penney, which plans to shutter seven stores in smaller markets by early April, identified all the locations to The Dallas Morning News even though none of the planned closings are in Texas.
As the Consumerist correctly points out, there is no rule that requires Sears Holdings to issue a national announcement. The company may have made the decision to not do so to avoid headlines declaring its imminent demise. But having chosen this path, it has actually attracted more attention from press outlets.
"We are going to be closing some Kmart and Sears stores in various cities across the country. It is a very small percentage of our overall number of stores," Howard Riefs, a Sears Holdings spokesperson, told Reuters without disclosing the total number of locations slated to be closed.
The Consumerist, checking local news accounts and quarterly reports to shareholders, has created its own list of closings and asked readers to let the site know if there are others that should be added. According to the current list, 39 Kmarts and five Sears have closed or are slated to close between April 2015 and 2016.