More U.S. Sears, Kmart Stores Are Slated for the Chopping Block

(Bloomberg) -- The Sears store culling isn’t over.

The struggling retailer will shutter 26 more of its large-format Sears and Kmart stores in late October, it announced on its website. Any of the locations with auto centers will close those divisions in late August, it said. Liquidation sales are expected to start as soon as next week.

The once-dominant chain, which has already closed more than 100 locations, is trying to rebuild itself by investing in smaller footprint stores, a key tenet of its turnaround plan. It didn’t say how many jobs would be impacted, but said workers would be offered severance payments like those allotted employees at Sears Holdings Corp. ahead of its 2018 bankruptcy filing.

Related: Sears Seeks More Time to Exclusively Advance Liquidation Plan

“After careful review of where we are today, we believe the right course for the company is to accelerate the expansion of our smaller store formats,” the company said. “Following these steps, we will continue to evaluate our network of Sears and Kmart stores and cannot rule out additional store closures in the near term.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Anne Riley Moffat in New York at ariley17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Crayton Harrison at tharrison5@bloomberg.net, Lisa Wolfson

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