Brick Kmart Store to Survive Latest Round of Closures

The Laurel Square shopping center, Brick, N.J. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The Laurel Square shopping center will not be losing an additional anchor store.

Kmart and Sears on Thursday jointly released a list of about 150 stores that would be closing soon. The list did not include any stores in Ocean County.

The company said in a statement that all of the stores that are closing would begin liquidating their inventory as soon as this weekend. The closures themselves would commence at the end of February through mid-March. The company blamed a “challenging retail environment” – a nod to the popularity of online shopping and competition from sites such as Amazon.com – as the reason behind the downsizing.

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“We are taking strong, decisive actions today to stabilize the company and improve our financial flexibility in what remains a challenging retail environment,” said Edward S. Lampert, Chairman and CEO of Sears Holdings. “We are committed to improving short-term operating performance in order to achieve our long-term transformation.”

Sears will also sell the Craftsman brand of tools to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. for $775 million divided between two payments, the company said. The brand will now be sold primarily outside Sears stores.

Stores Closing in New Jersey:

• Kmart, 1468 Clementon Road, Clementon.
• Kmart, 645 Route 18, East Brunswick.
• Kmart, 800 Black Horse Pike, Pleasantville.
• Kmart, Route 9 & Route 47, Rio Grande.