Sears Holdings, which saw its last profitable year in 2010, had closed multiple other Northern Michigan stores in the years leading up to the bankruptcy - including Kmart locations in Petoskey, Cheboygan, Gaylord, Traverse City, Alpena, West Branch and Acme, and a Sears in Traverse City.

Those cutbacks did impact Charlevoix’s Kmart store, which closed around the end of 2018. We thank the customers of Charlevoix, Cheboygan and Petoskey for their loyal support of the Sears Hometown Store and encourage them to visit to find the nearest open store location,” officials wrote.īased on Sears Hometown’s separate corporate structure, its operations were spared from a round of 142 store closings announced last fall when Sears Holdings - which operates Sears corporate stores as well as the Kmart discount chain - filed for bankruptcy. In some cases, for a variety of reasons, we opt to close certain stores. “Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores is always evaluating our network to determine which communities are best served by our stores. However, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores did send an electronic statement when the Charlevoix Courier inquired about the closing plans.

Representatives from Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores did not answer specific questions regarding ownership of the Northern Michigan stores, the number of employees affected by their planned closures and whether the upcoming store closures were related to former parent company Sears Holdings’ 2018 bankruptcy filing. Sears Hometown stores typically are smaller in scale than Sears corporate locations, but carry some of the same product lines, such as appliances and tools. It all depends on when we sell through things,” said Sears Hometown store manager Becky Cobb.Īll three of the area stores have operated under franchise with Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, an entity spun off from the long-running Sears chain into a separate company in 2012. The three Northern Michigan locations are scheduled to close around May 3, or after the liquidation of store inventory, which began on Friday, March 8. Sears Hometown stores in Petoskey, Charlevoix and Cheboygan are slated to close their doors in the next two months, according to representatives from the Illinois-based company.

Sears outlet stores locations