Goodbye, Kmart. Hello, Lowe’s.
Kmart at 1360 N. Ashland Ave., in the Wicker Park Commons shopping center, will close in mid-April, parent company Sears Holdings said, joining several hundred Kmart and Sears stores that have closed over the past several years as the struggling retailer tries to reduce expenses and shrink its store footprint.
The home improvement chain Lowe’s is set to take over the space that Kmart has occupied since 1991.
“Lowe’s complements the existing mix. They bring a merchandise mix that our customers are currently traveling out of Wicker Park to purchase,” said Larry Powers, a vice president at Centrum Partners, which is part of a venture that owns the shopping center. “Additionally, we expect there will be strong cross-shopping between Lowe’s, Jewel, Pet Supplies, Ulta and other existing tenants.”
Ulta, which has been opening 100 stores annually, is moving into a 10,000-square-foot space in the shopping center that formerly housed Staples, he said. An Ulta spokeswoman confirmed the new location but said there is no opening date set.
Lowe’s, based in Mooresville, N.C., has three locations in Chicago and about a dozen in the Chicago suburbs. Rival Home Depot, the largest home improvement chain in the U.S., has 10 city locations, including one a mile away on North Avenue.
Lowe’s plans to open its Wicker Park store in 2016, according to a spokeswoman. Centrum negotiated a buyout of Kmart’s lease, Powers said.
Kmart, which has 106 employees, will begin its liquidation sale Feb. 8. Eligible employees will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Sears or Kmart stores, the company said.
Marizol Miranda, an employee at Kmart for six years, said she worries about the regular customers who don’t have another Kmart nearby.
“For winter we have a lot of customers come in and getting warm clothes, coats, boots, they get stuff for the Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day,” said Miranda, 34, who works part time at the customer service desk. “Where are they going to go?”
Sears Holdings has been investing in its Shop Your Way loyalty program and “integrated retail” initiatives with the aim of migrating “highly engaged members who previously shopped these closed stores to alternative channels,” spokesman Howard Riefs wrote in an email, repeating a message the company delivered in its last earnings report.
“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.”
Sears Holdings, which has been losing money for 10 quarters, closed 235 stores last year, most of them Kmarts. It had 1,050 Kmart stores and 781 Sears stores in the U.S. as of Nov. 1, for a total of 1,831, compared with 2,018 stores at the same time a year earlier.
Crain’s first reported the news.
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