Just this week the Limited had announced closing many stores and is now closing all of them this weekend. Things must have been really bad for them to close so fast. They had one in the Steeplegate Mall years ago. Macy’s announced closing 68 stores and for months had been saying up to 100 stores, it took them till after Christmas to identify which ones however. Sears is closing 42 stores all around the nation. In addition, Sears Holdings is closing 78 Kmarts in addition to the 30 Kmart’s closing last week. Every 100 days Kmart announces a wave of closings! Things have gotten bad for them for 2 decades and gotten worse in the last 5 days, even worse than when they were bankrupt in 2002-2003. I feel its only a matter of time before Kmart crashes and burns. When you think it will go? I’d like your input. Kmart is beyond saving. Kmart will have 630 stores left after this last wave, closed 200 in 2016, well they had over 1000 left in 2014, 1500 left in 2003, 2200 in 1999 or 2000. Its like Woolworth where instead of shut them all down at once, they close them in waves. Kmart has been more recently closing last stores in some regions (like last one in some major areas like Louisville, Augusta GA, Sioux Falls and Jacksonville and Southwest Florida) and Florida has taken the hit, well Wal-mart’s presence there is like CVS around here. Texas took a hit years ago as that’s Wal-mart’s strong hold. Kmart is even closing many stores in its own stronghold, in Michigan esp around the Detroit area where its roots started. Kmart’s first store is closing (I will write a story on that more down the road), its in a Detroit suburb called Garden City and it opened in 1962. Sears is even selling off Craftsman tools, something that drew many people there. The Sears part has been faring better than Kmart but they have been losing stores too. I’d be sad if we lost the Sears part. For Kmart, I used to worry of it a lot, now its so what and I am desensitized. All Management of Sears and Kmart wants to do is wring out every value of the company they can. Of mall anchors closing due to their parent chains in trouble, I feel what malls can do with these empty space is repurpose them into an outdoor downtown like shopping area with stores, entertainment stuff, popular restaurants, an IMAX stuff you don’t find in malls like ice skating and aquariums. Everyone says online shopping is hurting retail and it has for the last couple years. I feel there will always be a need for retail stores, as people want to see and feel the products and cant sit at their homes all the time. Shopping malls is a good reason to get people out of their homes. I went to a new mall in Cincinnati last summer and it was a mixed use center with indoor and outdoor retail, apartments, entertainment and a train model. That’s going with the times. Retailers need to adapt with the times. One problem of malls can be is that they charge high rents. Some have, some haven’t. Kmart never has and many of their stores look the same as they did when I was a kid. Their electronics department is smaller, I have been to ones w cracked floors, half lit lights and 30 times less Customers than the nearby Walmart. They are a washed out retailer. They were the go to store until deeper into my childhood. Should Sears bring back mail order catalogs like it did? Id love your input on that. But some chains are doing fine despite all this slow down in retail. I admit some chains over expanded, and sometimes a chain needs to go on a diet, like close some and open in more productive areas.