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A Sears store in Lacey was not listed among the 79 Sears stores to close; a Sears store in Walla Walla will close, according to the list of store closures released Thursday.
No other Washington stores are set to close.
The Olympia store’s last day of business hasn’t been determined, Sears Holding spokeswoman Kim Freely said. The stores typically employ 40 to 80 people, and some workers will receive severance pay if they qualify, she said. Other employees will be notified about openings at other stores, Freely said.
Although Sears Holding identifies the Kmart store here as its Lacey store, the store is across the border in Olympia at 4141 Martin Way. The 84,000-square-foot store was built in 1978 and occupies a 7.69-acre parcel, Thurston County Assessor data show. It was not immediately clear whether Sears Holding of Hoffman Estates, Ill., owns or leases the property.
Customers said Thursday that they were not surprised the store was closing.
Lenore Vining of Lacey, who occasionally shopped at the store, said she’d sometimes drive by and see seven or eight cars in the parking lot, not enough to “support a company.”
Teresa McCroskey of Olympia said it was her second time visiting the store in two years, and on Thursday, she was visiting her 21-year-old daughter who works at the store. Her daughter, who had been looking for work, was hired for the holidays, she said.
“It’s not good news,” McCroskey said about her daughter once again being unemployed.
Luanne Steelhammer of Rochester said she shopped at the store maybe four times a month. She said the Olympia store was never that busy and thought it might be in trouble after Kmart and Sears merged a few years ago.
“The economy really hurt them,” she said.
Florida will be hit the hardest by the closing of Sears and Kmart stores, losing 11, according to the preliminary list of closures released Thursday.
Ohio, Michigan and Georgia are not far behind, with six store closures planned in each. Tennessee, North Carolina and Minnesota are set to lose four stores each.
The projected closings represent about 3 percent of Sears Holdings’ U.S. stores. Sears and Kmart merged in 2005. The company now has about 3,560 stores in the U.S. That’s up from 3,500 immediately after the merger, due to the addition of more small stores.
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403
rboone@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/bizblog
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
