Back in 1959, Sears started the Homart Development Company. What did Homart develop? Malls! It built and ran malls across the country, malls that were home to Sears stores. Today, Sears is no longer in the mall business, and in many towns, Sears has left the mall as well. That’s terrible news for other mall tenants and for the mall business as a whole.

Sears and JCPenney may both be losing money and struggling, but the large department stores that anchor a mall draw shoppers. Even if JCPenney isn’t turning a profit, its stores do draw people and their wallets into the building. What happens when a struggling mall has both Sears and JCPenney as anchors? Doom. Doom for everyone.

“If one of them goes, it almost forces the other one out, because the mall just won’t get enough traffic,” one industry analyst explained to the Wall Street Journal, referring to the two competitors.

Last week, manifesto-writing Sears CEO Eddie Lampert announced that the chain will be closing more stores in order to survive into the future. Want to rent a former Sears or Kmart, or rent space in one? Sears Holdings Realty can help you out with that.

Struggling Malls Suffer When Sears, Penney Leave [Wall Street Journal] (Thanks, Rowell!)

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