The last Sears in New Jersey is closing

How the mighty have fallen. Sears, once America’s largest retailer, is closing the one remaining store it has in New Jersey.

According to a post on the store’s Facebook page, the store in Newport Centre in Jersey City is shutting down, with a store-closing sale underway. They are advertising 50-75 % off the remaining merchandise.

Jersey City has housed the state’s lone Sears since 2020, when the chain shuttered their stores in Rockaway and Hackensack. Sears’ six other stores in the state – Wayne, Freehold, Woodbridge, Livingston, New Brunswick, and Moorestown – closed between 2018 and 2019.

Transformco, Sears' parent company, also owns another troubled retailer, Kmart; there are now two Kmarts left in the US and eleven Sears. New Jersey’s last Kmart, in Westwood, closed last fall.

At one time, Sears and Kmart had over 4,000 stores and 350,000 employees.

Sears was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck. The company's roots trace back to the 1880s when Richard Sears began selling watches to supplement his income as a railroad station agent. Recognizing the potential for a mail-order business, he partnered with watch repairman Alvah Roebuck.

In addition to its successful mail-order business, Sears began opening retail stores. The first retail store opened in Chicago in 1925. The company continued to expand its brick-and-mortar presence throughout the 20th century.

In 2005, Sears, Roebuck and Co. merged with Kmart to form Sears Holdings Corporation. The merger was an attempt to create a stronger retail entity. Eddie Lampert, a hedge fund manager, played a significant role in the merger and became the company's chairman.

In 2018, Sears Holdings filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Many Sears and Kmart stores closed as part of the bankruptcy proceedings.

No official closing date has been announced for New Jersey’s last Sears.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.

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