Dayton Kmart Among 3 To Be Shuttered In Ohio

DAYTON, OH — Three more Ohio Kmart stores are permanently closing as parent company Sears Holdings tries to stop the flow of red ink that threatens the existence of one of the nation’s oldest discount department store chain, founded in Michigan in 1962 by by American businessman Sebastian S. Kresge.

The latest round of closures announced Friday include 35 Kmart stores and eight Sears stores. The Ohio Kmart stores to be shuttered are located at 601 Woodman Drive in Dayton, 1801 W. Alexis Road in Toledo and 12501 Rockside Road in Garfield Heights.

So far, Sears Holdings has closed 300 stores nationwide, leaving about 1,000 still in operation.

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Other stores to be closed are in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Sears CEO Eddie Lampert wrote in a blog post that the stores that will be closed are unprofitable, and the company will continue to focus its efforts on returning its best stores to profitability. He said Sears Holding has made “significant progress” in its restructuring process and are on track to achieve a projected $1.25 billion annual cost savings.

“This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs,” Lampert wrote. “Having the right formats and right sized stores will help us put Sears Holdings in a better position to meet the realities of the changing retail world. …

“We have fought hard for many years to return unprofitable stores to a competitive position and to preserve jobs and, as a result, we had to absorb corresponding losses in the process,” Lampert continued. “So, it is obvious that we don’t make decisions to close stores lightly. Our efforts have been, and will continue to be, fact-based, thoughtful and disciplined, with the goal of making Sears Holdings more relevant and more competitive for our members and other constituents.”

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images News/Getty Images)