Last Kmart In Monmouth County To Close

WEST LONG BRANCH – The last Kmart in Monmouth County – and at the entire Jersey Shore – is going to close.

The Kmart in West Long Branch is shutting down, and a liquidation sale will begin this week.

The store will close in mid-April, according to 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 Kmart store in West Long Branch, NJ," he said in a statement to Patch.

"We encourage customers to continue shopping on Kmart.com for all their product needs."

The news comes as a large number of retailers and restaurants have announced they're leaving the state – leaving more than 600 layoffs in their wake as New Jersey is apparently dealing with what's been called a nationwide "retail apocalypse."

At least 33 stores have announced in recent days that they've closed, or they're planning to close very soon. A number of major national chains such as Sears and Forever 21 have also announced closings in New Jersey and elsewhere. Read more: New NJ Closures: 33 Stores, Restaurants Shutting; 600 Lose Jobs

Many of them are popular chains, too, that either ran into bankruptcy or decided to downsize stores "that no longer meet the standards our customers expect from us," according to Bed Bath & Beyon, which closed two stores in New Jersey.

How many jobs will be ultimately lost, in total, is unclear. At least five businesses in New Jersey have announced a total of 617 layoffs that will take place by Feb. 15. But that number is expected to rise because some stores that announced closures haven't yet addressed the impact on employment.