Columbus’ Kmart store at 3100 Hamilton Road is among the list of Sears and Kmart department stores that will be shut down, the Sears Holdings Corp. announced Dec. 27.
The Hamilton Road store near Eastland is the only central Ohio location among the list of 79 store closings SHC published in a Dec. 27 release. Its closing date is listed as “to be determined.”
SHC announced on Tuesday that it would close 41 Sears stores and 38 Kmart stores nationally but didn’t specify when those stores would close. The company also announced 49 other closings in August.
The move is intended to reduce ongoing expenses, chief executive officer Lou D’Ambrosio said in a company release.
“Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model,” D’Ambrosio said. “These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail – at the store, online and in the home.”
Ohio will lose six Kmart stores following the announcement, including locations in Chagrin Falls, Springfield, Medina, Columbus and two in Toledo. No Ohio Sears are counted among the Dec. 27 list. The company announced Aug. 18 that the Sears Hardware on Graceland Boulevard in Columbus would close, along with Sears stores in Wickliffe, Milford, Akron, Westchester and Eastlake.
In addition to the store closings, SHC announced it intends to reduce 2012 peak domestic inventory by $300 million as a result of “cost decreases in apparel, tighter buys and a lower inventory position at the beginning of the fiscal year.”
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