Sears Holdings Corp. said Thursday the last Kmart store in Jacksonville will close in mid-April and the liquidation sale will start Jan. 6.
The store is in West Jacksonville at 1501 Normandy Village Parkway.
Spokesman Howard Riefs called it a “difficult, but necessary decision.”
He said Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart and Sears stores, has been “strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity, and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores as previously announced.”
Riefs responded by email after Businessinsider.com reported Thursday that Sears Holdings told employees Tuesday it would close 30 Sears and Kmart stores in early 2017.
In addition to the Jacksonville Kmart, the news site said six more Florida Kmarts will be among those closing, including one in Palatka.
Businessinsider.com said Sears announced the closures internally Tuesday, but did not publicly release a comprehensive list of the stores involved.
The site said it confirmed most of the closures with store employees at each location.
Riefs declined to provide the number of employees whose jobs will be lost at the Jacksonville Kmart.
He said they are eligible to receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at other area Sears or Kmart stores, although the Normandy location was the last area Kmart.
Most of the employees are part-time hourly associates, he said.
The company’s remaining area locations are Sears department stores in The Avenues and Orange Park malls.
In July, the Regency Square Mall Sears store and two Kmarts along San Jose Boulevard and in Neptune Beach were closed.
Those were among a previous wave of closures, when Sears Holdings shut 68 Kmarts and 10 Sears stores.
Riefs said while the company hears from customers who are disappointed when the company closes a store, its Shop Your Way membership platform, websites and mobile apps continue to be available for shoppers.
Businessinsider.com said the latest round boosts the total number of stores Sears has closed this fiscal year to more than 200. That means Sears will have fewer than 1,500 stores open by early next year, down almost 60 percent from more than 3,500 stores in 2011.
For the third quarter that ended Oct. 29, Sears Holdings reported a net loss of $748 million, deeper than the $454 million loss in the third quarter a year ago.
Revenue dropped to $5 billion from $5.8 billion the year before, a decline Sears Holdings attributed primarily to fewer stores in operation.
Same-store sales fell 7.4 percent.
Sears is based near Chicago.
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