The Sears’ giant facade stands out from I-270 as it directly faces the passing cars - 110,000 of them per day, according to the mall’s owner, PREIT. I’ve driven by the Frederick Sears many dozens of times on trips from our home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., to that of family who live in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Why would you run this? … I am just shocked to see this one open.” Sears, malls, mortgages, vultures Why would you keep this one? It’s not doing business. It’s attached to bigger markets where isn’t operating. It’s a middle market that’s got plenty of competition. “This is a real operating Sears,” Egelanian said. Based on merchandising alone, the Sears looks very different from any other store I saw in the mall. Nothing about the store diminished our curiosity and, frankly, bafflement, though Egelanian had some theories (more on that below). Transformco - Sears’ parent company, which is controlled by former Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert - did not respond to my request to learn more about why it’s kept the store open and how the store is doing. Across different times during my visit to the mall, I saw perhaps two or three customers in all. The store in Frederick was even more sparse when it came to foot traffic, though to be fair I visited in the first couple hours after opening on a Thursday. What goods the store has are spread out on as many shelves as possible, and still there are entire patches of empty shelving in the corners and large swaths of sales floor without any fixtures or racks. Walking around the Sears in Frederick, the answers aren’t apparent. over recent years, how do you explain those Sears and Kmarts still with us? And how long will they remain a part of the retail landscape? The mystery today is of those that are still around, how are they doing and why do they still exist? With so many hundreds of closures in the U.S. has followed a never-ending cycle of financialization and retail decline. ![]() Why that is has been well-documented - the short version is that the disappearance of Sears stores from the U.S. The reason I came to this one is that it houses the last full-line Sears department store for hundreds of miles in any direction.įifteen years ago, there were nearly a thousand Sears department stores in the U.S. In other words, it’s the same as hundreds of malls built in the heyday of enclosed shopping centers and the American suburb.
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