Sears filed for bankruptcy early this morning and announced three more Kmart stores in Iowa will be closing. The stores are located in Cherokee, Council Bluffs and Webster City.
Nationwide, there will be 142 Sears and Kmart stores closing due to the bankruptcy filing. Liquidation sales at the K-Mart stores in Cherokee, Council Bluffs and Webster City will begin in the next two weeks, with closures by the end of the year.
The company has been closing what it deems “unprofitable” stores. Since 2013, two-thirds of the Sears and Kmart stores operating in the US have been closed.
Sears was founded 131 years ago and became the country’s number one retailer. Competition, changing shopping habits and massive debts led to today’s attempt to reorganize and stabilize the company through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
(By Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City and Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)