Kmart is closing its oldest remaining store in the City of Chattanooga at the end of September.
Sears Holding Co., said last year it will close up to 120 of its least profitable Sears and Kmart locations as part of a companywide cost reduction plan, and as a result will not be renewing the lease on its 35-year-old Kmart store on Highway 58 in the Harrison community.
Kimberly Freely, director of communications for Sears told the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “the lease is up at this location and we’re liquidating the merchandise (valued at $3.5 million).”
The Highway 58 store closing is among eight stores Kmart is closing in its latest round of cutbacks. Freely said the closings are cutting from 40 to 80 jobs at each store.
Kmart closed its’ locations in East Ridge and Signal Mountain Road within the last 7 years.
Locally, the Kmart in South Pittsburg near the Tennessee-Alabama state line has been closed now for over 10 years.
With all of the local closures Sears Holding Company will keep the Big Kmart locations in Cleveland, TN at Bradley Square Mall and the Fort Oglethorpe, GA location at Battlefield Parkway and Lafayette Road locations open at this time.
