Business & Tech

Bad if Sears, Kmart Leave?

Tell us in the comments, below this article, how bad you think it would be if these retailers left Douglas County.

Illinois-based Sears Holdings announced Wednesday that it will close 100 to 120 Sears and Kmart stores, citing sagging consumer electronic and home appliance holiday sales as a reason.

Sears said it has not determined which stores will close but said it will post the list online when it is complete. The company would not discuss how many, if any, jobs would be cut. 

Douglas County has both a , located at and a , located on Highway 5.

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The company has more than 4,000 stores in the United States and Canada.

"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,” Chief Executive Officer Lou D'Ambrosio said in a statement. “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."

Find out what's happening in Douglasvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.

For the fourth quarter to date, sales for Kmart and Sears are down 5.2 percent. Overall, the company experienced a 2.6 percent drop in year-to-year sales. The company is expected to release financial results for the fourth quarter and full year Feb. 23.

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