Sears to close at Greenwood Park Mall

Staff Reports

One of the largest department stores at Greenwood Park Mall — a mainstay since the mall opened its doors in 1966 — will close in the midst of this year’s holiday shopping season.

Sears, which once dominated the American retail landscape, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, buckling under its massive debt load and staggering losses.

Sears Holdings, which operates both Sears and Kmart stores, will close 142 unprofitable stores by the end of the year, with liquidation sales expected to begin shortly. That’s in addition to the closure of 46 unprofitable stores that had already been announced.

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In addition to the Greenwood store, Sears Holdings has a Sears Hometown Store in Greenfield and a Sears Appliance Outlet in Speedway. It also operates one Kmart store in Indianapolis, 6780 W. Washington St., and one in Elwood.

The mall will certainly suffer, said Steve Horwitz, an economics professor at Ball State University. But it is unclear at this point just how much.

“It’s significant. More and more malls are losing their anchor stores, and as they lose them, the other stores in the mall see less and less traffic. People just aren’t as willing to go spend three or four hours at a mall anymore when they can find what they’re looking for online or stop at Target on their way home,” Horwitz said.

“Malls are sort of hanging in there without anchor stores for as long as they can.”

The Greenwood mall is home to more than 150 other stores.

“This is a good thing for American consumers who have found far more value in the various options they now have,” Horwitz said in a statement.

“This sort of dynamic change is a sign of a healthy, competitive economy that is delivering value for consumers. Firms need to either adjust to that new reality or face the fate of Sears.”

Franklin resident Angie Mardis remembers spending every Sunday as a child at the Greenwood store, her mom’s favorite. From 1969 on, Sunday trips to the mall became a family tradition.

Her mom went for the sales; her dad for the tools; Mardis and her brother for the malt balls and chocolate stars that could be found in the candy department.

“We lived in Bargersville when I was a kid, so it was always a big deal when we got to go to Greenwood,” the 55 year old said.

“My mom would always joke that I never wanted anything that was on sale.”

At the time, it was more of a strip mall — shoppers had to go outside to get from store to store. Sears and L.S. Ayres were the only big-name stores there, she said.

L.S. Ayres was the last major Greenwood Park Mall retailer to close, which happened more than a decade ago. For decades, that store occupied the entire northwest corner of the mall. It was torn down in 2006 and replaced with several smaller stores and restaurants including Barnes & Noble, the Cheesecake Factory, Bar Louie and BJ’s Restaurant and Brewery, as well as a kids play area.

Sears, which started as a mail order catalog in the 1880s, has been on a slow march toward extinction as it lagged far behind its peers and incurred massive losses over the years.

“This is a company that in the 1950s stood like a colossus over the American retail landscape,” said Craig Johnson, president of Customer Growth Partners, a retail consultancy. “Hopefully, a smaller new Sears will be healthier.”

The company has struggled with outdated stores and complaints about customer service. That’s in contrast with chains such as Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Macy’s, which have been enjoying stronger sales as they benefit from a robust economy and efforts to make the shopping experience more inviting by investing heavily in remodeling and de-cluttering their stores.

Sears joins a growing list of retailers that have filed for bankruptcy or liquidated in the last few years amid a fiercely competitive climate. Some, like Payless ShoeSource, successfully emerged from reorganization in bankruptcy court. But plenty of others like, Toys R Us and Bon-Ton Stores Inc., haven’t. Both retailers were forced to shutter their operations this year soon after Chapter 11 filings.

Given its sheer size, Sears’ bankruptcy filing will have wide ripple effects on everything from already ailing landlords to its tens of thousands of workers.

Sears’ stock has fallen from about $6 over the past year to below the minimum $1 level that Nasdaq stocks are required to trade in order to remain on the stock index. The company, which once had 350,000 workers, has seen its workforce shrink to fewer than 90,000 people as of earlier this year.

As of May, it had fewer than 900 stores, down from a 2012 peak of 4,000.

The company closed its 46-year-old department store in Castleton Square this summer.