Sears To Shutter 100 To 120 Sears & Kmart Stores After Disappointing Holiday Sales

Sears is pointing to a big drop in this year’s holiday sales as the reason they’ll have to close 100 to 120 Sears and Kmart stores in 2012. Which means it’s your fault, consumers, for failing to shell out big dough at Sears. Kidding! Mostly.

CNNMoney says the stores reported about a 5.2% drop in sales at Sears from last year in the eight weeks before Christmas, as well as a 4.4% dip at Kmart stores. There are around 4,000 locations in American and Canada.

The lack of sales for Sears comes amid news that overall, the retail industry got a nice pick-up in the holiday season, by most indications and predictions. Sears hasn’t quite made the transition to the online shopping world, however, which may be why its sales suffered.

Stores likely to be closed include those in Sears’ home region of the Northeast and Great Lakes region, and additional closures in the future are are also a possibility.

“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,” said CEO Lou D’Ambrosio.

Sears, Kmart to shut 100-120 Stores [CNNMoney]

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