Business & Tech
Sears To Close Harlem Avenue Store, Leaving Retailer With Only 1 Chicago Location
The closing is one of 20 more stores to be shuttered by the Hoffman Estates-based company.
CHICAGO, IL — By September, Sears will be down to only one department store in Chicago after the retailer announced it was closing 20 locations across the country, including an outlet on the Northwest Side. The news comes a little more than a week after the struggling company announced it was cutting around 400 full-time corporate jobs, mostly from its Hoffman Estates headquarters.
The list of 20 stores to be closed — including the location at 1601 N. Harlem Ave. — was revealed by Business Insider on Friday. Employees at the affected stores, which also include two Kmart locations, were told about the closings Thursday, according to the report. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago — or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)
Stores are scheduled to close in September, and the locations will start liquidation sales at the end of June, the Chicago Tribune reports. The auto center at the Harlem Avenue location is set to close by the end of July, the report added. Only one Sears store — at 4730 Irving Park Road in Portage Park's Six Corners shopping district — will remain in Chicago once the Galewood outlet is shuttered.
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Sears had previously announced it was closing nearly 200 of its locations by the end of 2017. The company hopes to save $1.25 billion annually with the closings and job cuts.
RELATED: Sears To Cut 400 Corporate Jobs
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"We are making progress with the fundamental restructuring of our operations that we initiated in February," Sears chairman and CEO Edward S. Lampert said in a June 13 statement announcing the elimination of the corporate positions. "We remain focused on realigning our business model in an evolving and highly competitive retail environment. This requires us to optimize our store footprint and operate as a leaner and simpler organization."
More via Business Insider and the Chicago Tribune
Sears is closing its store at 1601 N. Harlem Ave. (Image via Google Earth)
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