Another Baltimore-area location of struggling department store chain Sears has bitten the dust—or will soon, anyway.
The Security Square Mall location is among 26 Sears and Kmart stores owned by parent firm Transform Holdco that will shut down in late October, according to a Tuesday announcement. Liquidation sales are set to begin around Aug. 15.
The Sears Auto Center at the Woodlawn mall will shut down even earlier, in late August.
Eligible employees will get the same severance deal extended to those who worked for dozens of stores that shut down after Sears declared bankruptcy last October. That round of 142 closures saw the loss of area locations in Columbia, Bowie and Westminster.
White Marsh Mall and Maryley Station Mall in Glen Burnie are the last remaining local outposts for the company that once claimed the title of largest retail operation in the country. There’s also a Sears Outlet on York Road in Timonium.
But those stores’ futures remain iffy as well. Per yesterday’s announcement, “we will continue to evaluate our network of Sears and Kmart stores and cannot rule out additional store closures in the near term.”
Transform Holdco, formed in February to acquire the assets of Sears Holdings Corporation, said it hopes to accelerate the expansion of smaller concepts, such as the new Home & Life chain and Sears Hometown brand founded in 2012, while cutting traditionally larger legacy stores moving forward.
