Sears Is Closing Another 43 Stores

Here we go again.

Sears Holdings (SHLD) on Friday announced a new round of store closings, this one involving 43 locations. The company framed the move as a strategic decision, one that will aid in its hoped-for return to profitability.

The retailer, which operates the Sears department stores and Kmart discount chain, has already announced 265 closings this fiscal year. The latest paring of the fleet will leave the company with 1,140 stores, barely more than half the number of stores it operated in 2012. In this latest round of shutterings, 35 Kmart stores and eight Sears stores will close. (See list below.)

That’s likely not the last of it, either. In a blog post, company CEO Eddie Lampert said more closings are coming.

In May, Sears reported disastrous first quarter results, with comparable sales down 12.4% at Sears, and 11.2% at Kmart in the first quarter. The disappointing sales numbers weren’t new — Sears lost about $10 billion in the last six years — but there are signs the retailer is reaching a crisis point. Earlier this year, the company implemented a $1.25 billion cost-cutting plan, and acknowledged fears it could very well go bankrupt.

“We have fought hard for many years to return unprofitable stores to a competitive position and to preserve jobs,” Lampert wrote in the blog post. “As a result, we had to absorb corresponding losses in the process. So, it is obvious that we don’t make decisions to close stores lightly.”

Lampert, a hedge fund manager who engineered the merger of Kmart and Sears in 2004, has long touted his work to reposition the company in response to large-scale shifts in the retail industry. (In his estimation, this means less physical space, as customers now expect more focused, edited assortments, and a focus on membership-based shopping.)

In recent years, Sears’ has moved to protect its cash pile by spinning off its best properties into a real estate investment trust, as well as subleasing and leasing store space. The rationale is that smaller, focused stores are more relevant to today’s shoppers. Sears recently opened a small store in Texas focused on mattresses and appliances, part of a new format the company is testing.

It’s questionable that an additional 43 stores and experimenting with new store formats will be enough to move the needle for a retailer with 1,000 locations. Indeed, Sears has closed hundreds of weak stores in the last few years, yet comparable sales – a metric that strips out the impact of newly closed or open stores- have continued to relentlessly fall.

Here are the stores involved in the latest round of closures:

Kmart