Troubled iconic retailer Sears is closing 80 additonal stores, including two locally, as it teeters on the brink of liquidation.
The company announced the closures Friday, including stores at Polaris Fashion Place and The Mall at Tuttle Crossing. The 80 stores are due to close by March. That's in addition to 182 stores already slated for closure. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October. At the time of the filing, it operated 700 Sears and Kmart stores. The 130-year old retailer set a deadline of Friday for bids for its remaining stores to avert closing down completely. But no official bid appeared to have emerged as of 4 p.m. E.T. Friday. The retailer that began out as a mail order catalog in the 1880s has been in a slow death spiral, hobbled by the Great Recession and then overwhelmed by rivals both down the street and across the internet. Sears Holdings Corporation, which also runs Kmart, joins the list of retail brands taken over by hedge funds that collapsed under the weight of debt forced upon them.
