Sears in Glendale to shutter after 85 years
Once an anchor of the downtown area, Sears in Glendale is shuttering after 85 years in operation.
In mid-March, the former retail giant offering home goods and appliances will close its doors, said Larry Costello, a spokesman for Transformco, the parent company of Sears and Kmart.
“After careful review, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to close the Sears store in Glendale, Calif.,” Costello said in a statement.
The store, which was constructed in 1935, is just the latest casualty of a retail market that has made it hard for some former brick-and-mortar mainstays to stay afloat.
This past November, Transformco announced it would be closing 96 Sears and Kmart stores by February 2020.
The location in Glendale was not listed as one of the 19 Sears stores in California set to shut down when the announcement was made.
Employees of the store located at 236 N. Central Ave. found out about the closure just two to three weeks ago, according to a store manager, who identified himself on the phone only as Richard.
The manager said employees can apply to positions open in other stores, but there’s no specific game plan in place.
“It’s case by case,” he said, in terms of next steps for individual employees.
Glendale officials aren’t aware of any immediate plans for the relatively large space, said Philip Lanzafame, Glendale’s director of community development.
While the store offered the city some tax revenue, Lanzafame said it wasn’t one of the biggest sources of sales tax funds in recent times.
“If cities are relying on [big-box stores] and they close, you get a big hit,” Lanzafame said. “Glendale has a pretty diverse retail foundation, so I’m not sure that any one store crashes the whole market.”
The store’s final open day will be March 15, according to the store manager.
A liquidation sale is currently in progress.