2 Sears Stores In Austin Among Those Closing In Bankruptcy

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Sears Holdings is closing more than 140 stores across the country as part of a bankruptcy filing, including two in Austin, company officials said Monday.

The company filed for reorganization of debt under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code on Monday, just as a $134 million debt payment had come due. As part of its debt reorganization, the parent company of Sears and Kmart will shutter 142 stores in the coming months, including a pair in Austin.

The local Sears stores slated for closure are at 2901 S. Capitol of Texas Highway in the western portion of the city and 1000 E. 41st St. in North Austin — the company's two oldest Austin stores located in Barton Creek Square Mall and Hancock Center, respectively. A former Sears location at Lakeline Mall closed last month, more than three months after Sears announced its closure.

The two Sears stores slated for closure are the last two remaining in Austin. All told, nine Texas stores are scheduled to be closed imminently, including three in Dallas and others in Frisco, Harlingen, Ingram, Lubbock, McAllen and Victoria.

Sears' faltering fortunes reflect financial struggles for the iconic "big box" retailer once dominant across the national retail landscape before the onset of online shopping. And they're not alone: Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have been adversely affected by shifting consumer spending habits in an age of bolstered online shopping.

"Debtors have engaged to advise the debtors on the most effective way to run a seamless and efficient multi-store closing process, and to maximize the value of assets being sold," company officials wrote in a court filing in the Southern District of New York. "The relief requested in this motion is integral to maximizing the value of the debtors' estates and it will establish fair and uniform store closing procedures to assist the debtors and their creditors through the debtors' transition to a leaner, more profitable enterprise."

Sears officials expressed hopes of emerging from Chapter 11 leaner an meaner, with the wherewithal to compete such industry rivals as Amazon and Walmart. The company provided no timeline as to when the shuttered stores would liquidate their inventories.

The Sears announcement evoked a sense of nostalgia among some Austinites as the local closures represent the end of the brick-and-mortar Sears presence in Austin. As KUT noted in its report on the imminent closures, Sears in 1963 built what was then dubbed the Sears-Hancock Center on half of the old Austin Country Club golf course. In the intervening decades, the retailer informed home goods and fashion choices among many local shoppers.

Search the map below to see where other Sears stores slated for closure are located in Texas:

Get Patch's Daily Newsletters and Real Time Alerts

>>> Top image: A sign announcing the store will be closing hangs above a Sears store on August 24, 2017, in Chicago. (Photo by Scott Olson | Getty Images)