Elmwood Park Kmart shutting; ShopRite taking its place

The Kmart stores in Elmwood Park, Somerset and Jersey City are closing this summer as part of a strategic and cost-cutting measure by Sears Holdings, Inc. which owns the struggling Sears and Kmart chains.

Company spokesman Howard Riefs called it a "difficult but necessary decision."

"This is not an effort solely aimed at cost savings but is part of a strategy we have been executing against as many of our larger stores are too big for our needs. Having fewer stores and the right format will help us bring Sears Holdings to a size and place to meet the realities of the changing retail world," he said.

The store employees will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for open positions at other area Sears and Kmart stores, he said.

The store at 180 Broadway in Elmwood Park will close in late July and will begin liquidation sales this month. A ShopRite supermarket will be going into that location, said officials in Elmwood Park.

"I think it will be great for economic development and provide our residents with not only an expanded market but will also increase the amount of residents that pass through Elmwood Park and visit our other stores," said Councilwoman Magdalena Giandomenico. The new supermarket will also provide new jobs for residents, she added.

Sears Holdings has been shuttering many of its stores over the past five years and is on Moody's distressed-level watch list.

In January, Sears announced that in response to declining sales, it was closing 103 Sears and Kmart stores, including a Sears in Toms River.

The company that was once among our nation's largest employers has been suffering for years, declining from nearly 3,500 stores when Kmart and Sears merged in 2005 to 1,000 at the beginning of 2018.

Kmart still operates several stores in Northern New Jersey in Kearny, Passaic, Wayne and Westwood.

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The closings come as no surprise to Archana Kumar, an associate professor of marketing at Montclair State University's School of Business, who has been following the fall of the company.

"They should have reconsolidated their stores much earlier. Then they could have stood a chance," she said. Instead Sears kept their stores the same size and did not differentiate themselves from their competition.

"They were out of touch with what was happening."

Very recently, Sears attempted to reposition itself by offering free tire changes, and more home maintenance. But now, "it's too late to change the image and bring more customers to the stores."