BALTIMORE COUNTY, MD — The Sears store at Security Square will be closing in late October, according to the company. It is one of 26 locations that will shutter as part of yet another round of closures.

Liquidation sales will begin around Aug. 15, according to Transform, the company that acquired Sears Holding Corporation. Transform, or New Sears, said that it believes the right course of action for the company is to accelerate the expansion of smaller store formats. Closing the larger-format store stores is necessary to improve sustainability, according to the company.

"Following these steps, we will continue to evaluate our network of Sears and Kmart stores and cannot rule out additional store closures in the near term," Transform said. "Our goal remains to return the company to profitability and preserve as many jobs as possible in the communities we serve." Eligible employees will get as many severance weeks as Sears Holding employees prior to the company's October 2018 bankruptcy filing.



Seven Sears and two Kmart stores closed in Maryland in the past two years. The Bethesda Sears closed in February, in a round of closures that included 40 stores nationwide. The retailer closed 142 unprofitable locations in late 2018, including five stores in Maryland: Bowie, Columbia and Westminster Sears plus the Oxon Hill and Prince Frederick Kmart stores. The Sears at Eastpoint Mall closed in January 2018, while The Hunt Valley Sears and Hagerstown Sears closed in summer 2017. After the Security Square closure, nine Sears stores will remain in Maryland: Annapolis, Bel Air, Cumberland, Frederick, Gaithersburg, Glen Burnie, Silver Spring, Waldorf and White Marsh.