Sears Holdings Corp.’s brick-and-mortar stores continued to lose ground in a tough retail environment, despite the company’s cost-cutting efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Sales at stores open at least a year declined 11.5 percent in the fiscal second quarter as the company scaled back the number of pharmacies and electronic products in its stores. Kmart’s same-store sales fell 9.4 percent, compared with 3.3 percent over the same period and Sears same-store sales declined 12.3 percent compared with a 7 percent drop last year. The declines come as the company has closed about 180 underperforming stores so far this year. Sears says that it is on track to close 150 more stores by the end of the third quarter and announced the closure of an additional 28 Kmart stores. Read more. (Subscription required.)
What does the future hold for retail bankruptcies? Be sure to attend ABI’s Bankruptcy 2017: Views from the Bench on October 17.
