Axios reports that "dozens of Sears Hometown stores are closing and holding liquidation sales, according to Facebook posts from the shuttering locations … Sears Hometown was touted in a November 2019 news release as a 'network of more than 400 independently-owned and operated, dealer-managed smaller-format stores' selling 'a range of home products, including appliances, lawn & garden, tools and sporting goods'."
The story notes that Transformco, which acquired Sears and Kmart out of bankruptcy in 2018, has not provided a list of the closing stores. "Sears and Kmart have closed thousands of stores and cut around 250,000 jobs over the last 17 years," Axios writes, and "store locator websites for Sears and Kmart were not accurate as of Wednesday and listed locations that previously closed."
- KC's View:
-
I always want to write "the ironically named Transformco" whenever that name comes up, because the only thing it seems good at is transforming stores into empty real estate and employed people into folks without jobs.
But I suppose this is what happens when people who have no idea what retailing is, or at the very least have no vision or strategy for what their retailer should be, end up running a retail business. This company is, and long has been, FUBAR.
