CAPE ESCAPES: SEARS WRAPS UP CATALOG, CLOSES 133 STORES

The Cape Girardeau Sears, Roebuck and Co. store will remain open.

"That's the good news for this area," said Graeme Wilson, manager of the Sears store in Town Plaza Shopping Center.

Other news announced by the No. 3 retailer in the U.S. was not so good. The firm Monday announced that it will close 113 stores, eliminate about 16,000 full-time jobs and 34,000 part-time positions, and discontinue its "big book" catalog in the latest effort to revive itself.

The Chicago-based company said that all changes should be completed by early 1994.,

"A major part of the cutback will be discontinuation of Sears' traditional catalog business," Wilson said after the satellite conference held Monday morning. "We will start phasing out our catalog department immediately and will discontinue taking orders by the end of the year."

Sears produced its first general merchandise catalog, which came to be known as the "big book," in 1896. The spring 1993 catalog will be its last, and orders from it will be accepted until the end of the year.

Among catalog operations to be discontinued are those at Perryville, Fredericktown, Ste. Genevieve, Sikeston, Portageville, Dexter and Poplar Bluff.

Arthur C. Martinez, Sears Merchandise Group chairman and chief executive officer, told The Associated Press: "This was a very difficult decision because the catalog is our heritage. It's how Sears started."

Martinez said that the U.S. catalog operation had after-tax losses ranging from $135 million to $175 million in each of the past three years.

Sears officials also said most of the store closings would range from small to medium-sized stores. closing dates will vary and were not immediately announced.

Sears operates more than 850 stores in the United States, including more than 400 of the small and medium-size stores.

"Four stores will be closed in the St. Louis district," said Wilson. "One of them, the Grand Avenue Store in St. Louis, is a Class A, or large, store."

Sears stores have three classifications: A, B and C.

Other St. Louis district stores that will close include stores at Centralia, Ill., Pekin, Ill., and Burlington, Iowa.

The Cape Girardeau store, which is in the St. Louis District, is a B store, said Wilson.

Wilson said sales at the local store were strong during 1992.

"We had the highest sales increase in the district last year," he said. "And we're off to a good 1993. Our January sales to date are up 1.5 percent over January of a year ago. Business has been great."

Wilson said he didn't foresee any layoffs at the Cape Girardeau store.

"With all of the catalog operations throughout the area, our catalog business wasn't that strong," he said. "We didn't have a lot of people in the catalog department."

The local store employs more than 100 people.

Sears plans to offer early retirement incentives to about 4,000 salaried corporate and merchandise group employees over age 50 who have at least 20 years service with the company. Employees whose jobs are eliminated but are not eligible for early retirement may be placed in other positions if they qualify, the company said.

A big chunk of Sears jobs may be lost at one site, the Sears Telecatalog Center at Wichita, Kan., which employs more than 1,000 people. The center is among the casualties of the massive restructuring.

Sears has eliminated more than 48,000 jobs in its retailing division since 1990 to try to regain market share and ensure the unit's profitability. The Sears chain slid from No. 1 to No. 3 among U.S. general merchandisers in 1991.

In October, Sears reported an $833.7 million third-quarter loss, its first quarterly loss since 1933. The company blamed the results on enormous insurance claims for hurricane damage and a costly auto-repair scandal.

When completed, the restructuring is expected to improve net income by about $300 million annually and improve cash flow, Sears said.

The company will take a $1.7 billion after-tax charge in the fourth quarter of 1992 for the restructuring.

The restructuring was approved by the Sears board on Saturday.

"I would like to believe this is a full and complete resolution of all of our major problems," Martinez said. He added, however, that "We will be continuing every day, every week and every year to find ways of lowering costs. It is an ongoing process."

In early trading on the New York stock exchange Monday, Sears stock was up $1.87 to $50.75 a share.

Sears was founded in 1886 by Richard Sears in 1886 as a watch sales and repair service. Seven years later Sears company expanded into general merchandise, and in 1896 Sears produced its first general merchandise catalog.

Sears was the No. 1 retailer in the nation for 98 years, from 1893 to 1991 when it fell behind No. 1 Wal-Mart and No. 2 Kmart.

(Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.)