Sears bankruptcy kills Tri-Cities store

The Tri-Cities Sears store is closing as part of the company’s bankruptcy.

The store is on the list of 80 more Sears and Kmart stores scheduled to shut its doors in late March 2019.

The company said the latest list of closures are “part of Sears Holdings’ processes to accelerate its strategic transformation and facilitate its financial restructuring....”

Sears associates were told Dec. 27 and liquidation sales are expected to begin in two weeks.

The Sears Auto Centers at those Sears stores also will be closing, said the release.

The 80 announced this week were in addition to the 40 unprofitable stores announced previously to close. Those closures were expected to be finished in February, said the release.

The Sears in the Columbia Center mall in Kennewick is one of the anchor tenants. Mall manager Barbara Johnson could not be reached Friday about the company’s announcement.

In October, Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart stores, announced that it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in order to try and save the company.

Suffering from falling sales and heavy debt, it planned to close 142 of about 700 stores and cut thousands of jobs.

It’s unclear how many thousands more will lose their jobs, including Tri-City employees, in the latest around of layoffs.

Columbia Center’s movie theater also recently closed but it is being replaced by a Dick’s Sporting Goods, already under construction and expected to open in 2019.

This story was originally published December 28, 2018 at 12:33 PM.