Kmart to Close Boardman Store in April

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Boardman Kmart department store will close in mid-April, a spokesman reported Tuesday.

The store,  1209 Boardman-Poland Road, will remain open to customers until then and a liquidation sale is scheduled to  begin Jan. 24.

Built in 1967 and remodeled in 1986, the store has 81 employees, most of whom are part -time and paid by the hour, according to a company statement.

Kmart, which merged with Sears in 2005, has been troubled for years. Comparable-store sales declined 7.5% the third quarter of 2015, with more than half of the decline coming from drops in apparel and consumer electronics.

“Store closures are part of a series of actions we’re taking to reduce ongoing expenses, adjust our asset base and accelerate the transformation of our business model,” said Howard Reifs, director, corporate communications, for Sears Holdings, Kmart’s parent company. “These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail – at the store, online and in the home.”

The company’s investments in Shop Your Way and Integrated Retail will enable it to “migrate the shopping activity of highly engaged members who previously shopped these closed stores to alternative channels,” he continued. “As a result, we hope to retain a portion of the sales previously associated with these stores by nurturing and maintaining our relationships with the members that shopped these locations.”

Eligible associates will receive severance pay and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores.

Customers with layaway contracts at the store have the option of paying off the contract early or transferring their layaway contracts to a neighboring store or online. Kmart is informing its customers of their options and how to exercise them as they come to the store to make their weekly payments.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.