Sears and Kmart will remain open in Cape

Cape Girardeau will keep its Sears and Kmart stores, according to a Sears Holdings Corp. announcement Thursday.

In that announcement, the company stated that 15 Kmart stores and 48 Sears stores will close in early September 2018, with liquidation sales to begin as early as June 14 at those stores.

The company earlier had stated it would announce 72 store closings, but then pulled a small group of stores from the closing list for further evaluation, according to the release.

Also on Thursday, the company released its first quarter 2018 results, reporting a net loss of $424 million, or $3.93 loss per diluted share.

First quarter 2017, by contrast, saw a net income of $245 million, which included a $492 million gain from the sale of the Craftsman brand, the release stated.

Two Sears stores in Missouri will close, both in the St. Louis area: one at 250 South County Center Way in St. Louis, and the other in Chesterfield Mall.

On May 19, Sears Holdings published a list of another 42 stores set to close, adding to the more than 100 Sears and Kmart locations expected to close in 2018.

Among those closures announced were Kmart stores in Mount Vernon, Illinois, and Paducah, Kentucky, and the Sears store in Marion, Illinois.

The Cape Girardeau Sears store at 330 Siemers Drive was put up for auction online earlier this spring. A company spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment on that transaction.

In October 2017, Sears ended its business relationship with Whirlpool-branded appliances, which dated back more than 100 years, according to The Associated Press.

Sears also pulled from its sales floors Whirlpool subsidiaries including Maytag, KitchenAid and Jenn-Air, leaving only Sears' Kenmore products for sale, and brands including LG, Samsung, GE, Frigidaire and others.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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