UPDATE: Sears Is Closing East State Street’s K-Mart

Update: Sears announces that it is closing Rockford's East State Street Kmart, among the other closures announced earlier this morning.

According to the Rockford Register Star, 15 Kmarts and 48 Sears stores will be shutdown.

The closures included "the Kmart at 5909 E. State St. in Rockford. The Sears that operates out of CherryVale Mall in Cherry Valley was not listed among the stores to be shuttered."

Oh no. That's terrible news. I glad that so far the CherryVale Sears is still open, but I hate to see the last Kmart in Rockford to have it's doors closed permanently.

The stores effected in this next wave of shutdowns "will close in September. [The] liquidation sales will start as early as June 14."   The company did say that the "employees will receive severance and be able to apply for openings at other Kmart and Sears stores."

Well that's a bit of good news.

At least the employees getting some compensation for their service and other opportunities.

Still it's going to be hard to see yet another building go vacant in Rockford. Especially like the East State location. It's right there in high traffic area, just to sit there like an empty tomb will look terrible.

After reviewing sales, Sears is closing more stores nationwide. Will it include Rockford's store?

Sears a store we all grew up with, poured through their Christmas catalog is facing some dismal days.

They've announced that they will be closing up to 100 more stores "that are no longer turning a profit, and the majority of those locations will be shuttered soon." (ABC7)

According to the ABC7 artcile Sears lost "$424 million, or $3.93 per share, for the period ended May 5."

They used sales at stores that had been open a year as their gauge for their financial health and stability and found that those fell by 11.9% this year.

It's sad to see a retail giant such as sears has been to fall like this. I mean think about it this store has "survived two world wars and the Great Depression." Now it's reduced to "calving off pieces of itself as it burns through money" just to try to stay afloat and relevant in this modern era.

At this time is wasn't stated that the Rockford store in the CherryVale Mall would be effected.

My fingers are crossed that it won't be.

The mall doesn't need another anchor closing and the people there need their jobs.

This honestly, makes me sad.

I well remember visiting the Sears store on Main Street, now the Discovery Center, with my Mom and sister. We got a lot of our new clothes for school there. My sister and I loved riding the escalator down stairs to see the see-thru panel on the running dishwasher and of course that cool donut counter that was in the vestibule of the entrance to the store.

I honestly, hope and pray Rockford's can be saved.