Monday, February 10, 2020

[UPDATE] Sears to Shutter Second to Last Store in Georgia

In its ongoing effort to remain a going concern, TransformCo, current owner of both Sears and Kmart, reportedly plans to close an additional 39 stores, including one Sears store in Georgia, according to a report by USA Today.  ToNeTo Atlanta confirmed the planned Georgia closure is at Augusta Mall in Augusta, with an associate at the store indicating that liquidation sales are slated to begin Tuesday, February 11 and run though April 12, or until all merchandise is sold. 
Photo courtesy of SkyCity2.blogspot.com 

Augusta Mall, developed by renowned mall developer The Rouse Company, opened in 1978 with just two anchors: Rich's and Davison's.  A JCPenney was added in 1987, followed by Sears in 1990.  Today the mall is owned by Brookfield Properties and is anchored by JCPenney, Macy's, Sears, Dillard's and Dick's Sporting Goods.   

TransformCo, the company formed in January 2019 to buy the remaining assets of bankrupt retailer Sears Holdings Corp., announced plans in November to close an additional 96 stores by early 2020.  The closures - 51 Sears and 45 Kmart stores - will take place by late February with going-out-of-business sales currently in progress. 

In metro Atlanta, where in recent years Sears has shuttered stores at Cumberland Mall, North Point Mall, Northlake Mall and Gwinnett Place Mall, among others, the retailer is actively closing at Arbor Place Mall in Douglasville.  Sears,  one of five anchors at the mall, opened with the mall in 1999.  The closure of the Sears will leave Arbor Place with four anchors: JCPenney, Macy's, Dillard's and Belk (in the former Parisian).   

Recent closures have left Georgia with zero operating Kmart stores and soon, just one operating full-line Sears store: Town Center at Cobb in Kennesaw.    Several former Atlanta area Sears stores have been reborn as popular attractions. 

The site of the former Buckhead area Sears is today home to the St. Regis Atlanta, while the former Sears store, offices and warehouse along Ponce de Leon Avenue in Old Fourth Ward was reborn as Ponce City Market. 

Former Sears stores at Northlake Mall in Tucker, Cumberland Mall in Smyrna and North Point Mall in Alpharetta are all slated for re-purposing.    

ToNeTo Atlanta announced October 24, 2019 that Emory Healthcare will open a new campus in the former Sears store in Northlake as well as a portion of the mall itself.  This past summer we exclusively reported that Round1 and Dick's Sporting Goods/Golf Galaxy will headline the replacements planned for the Sears at Cumberland Mall.  The Sears store at North Point Mall is slated to be demolished and rebuilt as "The Point," a mixed-use project with multifamily, retail, restaurant, and small parks and trails. 

Are you sad to see so many Sears stores close?  What is your favorite department store?  What would you like to see open in place of the Sears at Arbor Place Mall?

Please share your thoughts below. 

15 comments:

Bryan Marquardt said...

I stopped at Town Center looking for a specific item that Sears might have in stock. That store was sooo sad looking. It looked as if they just gave up already. Shelves were empty, trash here and there. It's a matter of time before this one goes away too. I say go ahead and pull that plug and put it out of its misery.

Unknown said...

I haven't set foot in a Sears in over 20 years. Evidently, I'm not the only one.

Phillip Childs said...

The last CEO was an idiot, but spinning off Diehard and Craftsman is good for those of us that love those brands, but it surely killed the Sears name

Cody Cargle said...

Bryan Marquardt Town Center at Cobb will be extremely easy to replace considering Cumberland Mall blew it’s opportunity when Macy’s the former Davison’s, the former JCPenney’s and now the former Sears decided to become not a Dillard’s or Belk or something new like Boscovs from up North, or high end stores like Nordstrom’s, Bloomingdales, Von Maur, Neiman Marcus, or Saks Fifth Avenue, which now only Nordstrom’s, Von Maur, and Dillard’s are all three doing better along with Belk or Boscovs despite growth from Amazon, Walmart, Target, and death of Sears and struggling JCPenney’s and Macy’s of course! 🧐 I can see Town Center at Cobb Sears definitely becoming a 2 or 3 story Dillard’s no doubt, because Kohl’s would not be a good fit for that mall, they already have a location in Acworth and Austell not far from this location, Boscovs on the other hand would be another choice if Arbor Place don’t do it first, now for high end definitely Von Maur would do well because of customer service would make Kennesaw very interesting, plus the Town Center at Cobb Sears is badly run down, the JCPenney’s there is extremely lousy, Belks is awesome location the best one besides Arbor Place, the one on Dallas Highway is okay but that one is a clone to Sevierville and Destin Florida locations sadly, Newnan never been to that one or the one in Macon, since most non Mall Belks are the same sadly, and Macy’s on the other hand really nice location there considering the Men’s store is basically a Dillard’s and Belk had a family together but otherwise Macy’s at the other malls suck except for Cumberland, Arbor Place, and Lenox, the one at MOG is a clone to Arbor Place. 🧐 I say Town Center at Cobb Sears will be gone by summer or before the end of this year and possibly Chapter 7 liquidation of the company if things don’t get better, because the one where I currently live has already closed. 🧐

Jerry said...

What do you expect when they merged or aquired K-Mart?

Jml813 said...

K Mart actually acquired Sears.

Lower Forty said...

Well apparently you don't do good research. One Buckhead Plaza is where the Buckhead Sears store was. My father-in-law was a group merchandiser and that was were his office was after he moved out of the Ponce store.

Alex said...

Jeez Cody, why do you hate paragraphs so much?

Jamal said...

That was one of the longest run on sentences ever! lol

Anonymous said...

@Lower Forty.....The store actually sat on land partially occupied by both One Buckhead Plaza and the St Regis (they are next door to each other.) A good deal of that space was parking lot and the former Auto Center is still standing and in use by other businesses today. My aunt manager the women’s better blouses department there for a few years and we visited her often, so I am familiar with the location also.

Cody Cargle said...

Alex smh if you have a problem with what I write then you can always hop off this site, I was explaining to Brian what I know about Georgia since I used to live in Paulding County! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Cody Cargle said...

Jamal Lol if you have a problem like Alex then why don’t you hop off this site, I was just explaining to Brian what I know about Georgia since I used to live in Paulding County of course! 🤔

Anonymous said...

Lower Forty, both you and our gracious host are sort of wrong and sort of right - if you look at old aerial photos like at https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer, the Sears store was mostly behind the St. Regis - it backed up to Buckhead Avenue and mostly shared a footprint with the parking deck, which I believe is used by both the hotel and One Buckhead Plaza.

But they both were built in the parking lot for the Sears (which was huge), so you're both right that they were built on the site of it.

Anonymous said...

you don't even live here

Bruce said...

@Jml813 You are technically correct K Mart did acquire Sears on paper. All the funding for the merger came from Sears however, is was done that way for tax purposes. I worked for Sears. Bottom line Sears bought KMart and yes it was a stupid idea.


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