Local retailers to remain open
<p>Cindy Nelson talks about what she likes about the Coeur d'Alene Big Kmart on Thursday. Area locations have not been included in a preliminary list of nearly 80 Sears and Kmart stores that are scheduled to be closed.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Coeur d'Alene survived the cut.
Sears Holdings Corp. on Thursday released its preliminary list of 79 Kmart and Sears stores it plans to close, none of which are in Coeur d'Alene.
A Sears store in Lewiston is the only Idaho location on the list.
The next closest closure to Coeur d'Alene, which has both Sears and Kmart, is a Sears store in Walla Walla, Wash.
"I'm really thankful they're not closing," said Cindy Nelson, shopping at Kmart Thursday. "It's fairly close to home and most of the time they have what I need."
Jobs also remain intact, she pointed out.
Managers of the local stores couldn't comment on the corporate decision.
Sears media representatives declined to comment on the closure list, but a spokeswoman for Sears Holding Corp. said each store on the list employs between 40 and 80 people, according to the Associated Press.
Florida will be hit the hardest by the closing of 11 Sears and Kmart stores, while Ohio, Michigan and Georgia will lose six stores each. Tennessee, North Carolina and Minnesota are set to lose four stores apiece.
None of the closures announced so far are in Sears' home state of Illinois.
The 125-year-old retailer said on Tuesday it would close up to 120 stores to raise cash.
The projected closings represent only about 3 percent of Sears Holdings' U.S. stores. Sears and Kmart merged in 2005. The company now has about 3,560 stores in the U.S. That's up from 3,500 immediately after the merger, due to the addition of more small stores.
Katie Jackson, of Coeur d'Alene, said keeping Kmart open here is a boon, since the store charges lower interest on layaway compared to other places.
"I just like the fact they have layaway for low income people," she said. "If it closed, for low income people, it wouldn't be good."