Sears, Ocean County Mall. (Photo: Simon Properties)
Sears will be closing its store in the Ocean County Mall as part of a national plan to shutter locations that are not profitable.
The Kmart stores in Toms River and Brick will, however, remain open amid the latest round of closures announced Thursday by Sears Holdings, the two stores’ parent company.
The only local store on the list – and the only store in New Jersey as a whole – of properties to be shut down is the Sears store at the Ocean County Mall. The company said the store would close in “early April.” The automotive section will likely close by the end of this month.
In all, 103 Kmart and Sears stores are closing across the country.
“Sears Holdings continues its strategic assessment of the productivity of our Kmart and Sears store base and will continue to right size our store footprint in number and size,” the company said in a statement. “In the process, as previously announced we will continue to close some unprofitable stores as we transform our business model so that our physical store footprint and our digital capabilities match the needs and preferences of our members.”
Liquidation sales will begin as early as Jan. 12 at the closing stores, the company said.
