The company said in a blog post that the store closures are part of an ongoing effort to “focus on our best stores and return to profitability.”

“This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs,” Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert said in the post. The substantial growth of online shopping in recent years has been blamed for the closing of not just Sears and Kmart stores, but the downsizing and shuttering of a plethora of other once profitable retail chains, such as JCPenney and HH Gregg.
Sears, Roebuck & Co. announces it will be closing eight more of its namesake department stores, as well as thirty five Kmart locations in addition to the hundred and fifty stores that they had announced in January would be shuttered.