Sears Closing

at 351 W Schuylkill Road in Pottstown is scheduled to close. 

The location is one of over 100 store closings across the U.S., Sears Holdings Corporation announced recently.

No date is set for the closing.

"Employment varies by store and format and at this time we cannot provide the total number of impacted associates," a news release from the company states. "However, a typical store that is being closed employs between 40 and 80 associates."

Sears Domestic's quarter-to-date sales "decline was primarily driven by the consumer electronics and home appliance categories, with more than half of the decline in Sears Domestic occurring in consumer electronics," the release states.

"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."

That plan "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," said Chief Executive Officer Lou D'Ambrosio in the release.  

Specific actions include the closing of 100 to 120 Kmart and Sears Full-line stores.  

"We expect these store closures to generate $140 to $170 million of cash as the net inventory in these stores is sold and we expect to generate additional cash proceeds from the sale or sublease of the related real estate."  

Final determination of the stores to be closed has not been made.  

"Excluding the effect of store closures, we currently expect to reduce 2012 peak domestic inventory by $300 million from the 2011 level of $10.2 billion at the end of the third quarter as a result of cost decreases in apparel, tighter buys and a lower inventory position at the beginning of the fiscal year," the release states.

"In addition to the specific store closures ... we will carefully evaluate store performance going forward and act opportunistically to recognize value from poor performing stores as circumstances allow," the release states. "While our past practice has been to keep marginally performing stores open while we worked to improve their performance, we no longer believe that to be the appropriate action in this environment. We intend to accentuate our focus and resources to our better performing stores with the goal of converting their customer experience into a world-class integrated retail experience."

The company plans to release financial results for its fiscal 2011 fourth quarter and full year around February 23, before the market opens.

About Sears Holdings Corporation

Sears Holdings Corporation is "the nation's fourth largest broadline retailer with over 4,000 full-line and specialty retail stores" in the U.S. and Canada.  

"Sears Holdings is the leading home appliance retailer as well as a leader in tools, lawn and garden, consumer electronics and automotive repair and maintenance," the release states. "Key proprietary brands include Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard, and a broad apparel offering, including such well-known labels as Lands' End, Jaclyn Smith and Joe Boxer, as well as the Apostrophe and Covington brands. It also has the Country Living collection, which is offered by Sears and Kmart. We are the nation's largest provider of home services, with more than 11 million service calls made annually."