Sears Home & Sears To Close Stores In Middletown & At Rhode Island Mall

WARWICK, RI — Sears will soon have just two hometown stores in the Ocean state. The big Sears store at the Rhode Island Mall is slated to close in mid-September, Business Insider is reporting. The Warwick location is among 20 stores that will be shuttered nationwide. All 20 belong to a company called Seritage. Sears leases the properties from Seritage and is exercising an option to exit the lease, if the stores are unprofitable, Business Insider said. Liquidation sales could begin June 30.

"We can confirm that we are making the difficult, but necessary decision to close the Sears store at 650 Bald Hill Road in Warwick," said Howard Riefs, spokesman for Sears Holdings. "The store will close to the public in mid-September. Until then, the store will remain open for customers. The store will begin its liquidation sale on June 30. We have been strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity, and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores as previously announced. We understand that members may be disappointed when we close a store, but our Shop Your Way membership platform, websites and mobile apps allow us to maintain these valued relationships long after a store closes its doors. As a result, we hope to retain a portion of the sales previously associated with this store by maintaining our relationships with the members who shopped this location. Our members and customers can also shop at our other Sears locations, which are listed at http://www.sears.com/stores.html."

The company is not saying how many employees may lose their jobs.

"The number of associates is not publicly available," he said. "Those associates that are eligible will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores."

The Middletown Sears Home store is closing by the end of the month, the store manager said this morning. That store is holding a liquidation sale now.

Sears Home is a separate company, according to Riefs, of Sears Holdings.

The remaining Rhode Island stores are in North Kingstown and in Wakefield. They're both Sears Home stores. They're expected to stay open.

In January, Sears Holdings announced the Woonsocket store would close by the end of March. In a press release, the company said “Sears Holdings will continue to strategically and aggressively evaluate our store space and productivity, and accelerate the closing of some unprofitable stores as the company has previously announced.

Patch will contact Sears Home for details about the other stores and update this story if information is available.