Sears Says Reports Of Planned Store Closings Are Wrong, Won’t Elaborate

Sears Holdings wants you to know that the rumors of planned store closings by the end of this year are wrong. After a report earlier today put together information from local media reports about which Sears, Sears Auto, and Kmart locations are currently scheduled to close, Sears representatives reached out to major outlets like USA Today and the Chicago Tribune to explain that the reports were incorrect.

What was incorrect about Seeking Alpha’s research? The list misidentified one of the stores in Indiana set to close, naming a store in Evansville instead of Indianapolis. What else was wrong on the list? Were there any other stores listed that weren’t closing, or stores left off the list? The Sears Holdings spokesperson wouldn’t say. Saying that a total of 107 outlets were going to close could be one inaccuracy from the chain’s point of view, but they tend to list those stores separately, so why shouldn’t the media count them separately?

Sears used to release nationwide lists to the press of stores that would be closing. If they don’t want to do that any longer, that’s fine with us, but here’s one from 2011 that was archived online, for example. Representatives of the company say that the company will simply release a revised store count along with its quarterly results.

Seeking Alpha, meanwhile, has added nine more stores to the list, bringing the total to 116 outlets closing, and more than 6,000 jobs lost.

Sears rejects report of layoffs, store closings [Chicago Tribune]

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