Sears At Georgia Square Mall To Close

ATHENS, GA — The Sears store at Georgia Square Mall will be closing in late October, according to the company. It is one of 26 locations that will shutter as part of yet another round of closures.

The Sears Auto Centers at the Georgia Square Mall store will close in late August. Liquidation sales will begin around Aug. 15, according to Transform, the company that acquired Sears Holding Corporation.

Transform, or New Sears, said that it believes the right course of action for the company is to accelerate the expansion of smaller store formats. Closing the larger-format store stores is necessary to improve sustainability, according to the company.

"Following these steps, we will continue to evaluate our network of Sears and Kmart stores and cannot rule out additional store closures in the near term," Transform said. "Our goal remains to return the company to profitability and preserve as many jobs as possible in the communities we serve."

Eligible employees will get as many severance weeks as Sears Holding employees prior to the company's October 2018 bankruptcy filing.

Sears reported a net loss of $424 million during the first quarter of 2018.

The retailer closed 142 unprofitable locations in late 2018, including in Georgia at Cumberland Mall, Brunswick and Savannah. At the end of May 2018, Sears announced three other Georgia stores were closing, leaving 11 Sears stores — not including appliance outlets, HomeTown stores or auto centers — left in Georgia.

four remaining Sears stores— not including appliance outlets, HomeTown stores or auto centers — left in Georgia. They are located at:

• Athens, 3700 Atlanta Hwy Ste 270
• Douglasville, 6580 Douglas Blvd.
• Gainesville, Pearl Nix Pkwy.
• Kennesaw, 400 Ernest W Barrett Pkwy.

Patch editors Dan Hampton, Feroze Dhanoa and Elizabeth Janney contributed to this article.