No word yet on fate of local Sears, Kmart stores

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There’s no public word yet on the fate of the Mitchell Sears and Kmart stores.

An employee at the Mitchell Kmart store, located at 1313 S. Burr St., said employees have been told the store’s fate but were advised not to share it with the public. The employee declined to be identified.

The employee provided a phone number for a corporate spokesman, but the number was answered by a recording that said the spokesman will be out of the office until next week.

A recording at the Sears Media office advises people to check www.searsmedia.com for a list of stores that will close. The list was not on the website as of Wednesday afternoon.

On Tuesday, the Sears Holding Group, the corporate owner of Sears and Kmart stores, announced plans to close 100 to 120 stores in 2012.

“While our past practice has been to keep marginally performing stores open while we worked to improve their performance, we no longer believe that to be the appropriate action in this environment,” the company said in a news release Tuesday.

Ashley Tilberg, owner of the local Sears store at 1801 N. Main St., Unit 8B, said she has not heard anything yet. She has five employees.

“All I know is, we will learn more by the end of the week.”

Tags: news, updates, local, mitchell, sears, kmart, business