30-plus

workers

out of jobs

at Kmart

By Linda Lemmon

Town Crier Editor

E. PUTNAM --- More than 30 employees will now be looking for other jobs as the Kmart in the Putnam Parkade will be closing by July.

The Putnam Kmart was one of the 68 Kmart stores and 10 Sears stores to be closed in the latest announcement of closing by Sears Holdings Corp. Earlier this year, Sears announced the closure of 140 stores.  The chain's same-store sales dropped 6.9 percent in the most recent quarter. Sears Holdings hopes to return the company to profitability with the closings.

A May 12 liquidation sale will begin May 12, according to local Kmart staff.

Thirty-two full- and part-time employees at the Putnam Kmart are welcome to apply for open slots at other Kmarts.  The communications department at Sears Holdings Corp in Illinois did  not return calls for comment on the fate of local employees.

Originally Kmart in Putnam was in the shopping plaza next to downtown. 

In 1995 Kmart built the 100,000-plus square foot store on 15.07 acres it owns at the Putnam Parkade on Rt. 44. It began as a Kmart, was for a time a Sears Essentials store and reverted back to a Kmart store in its time on Rt. 44. 

In a statement Sears CEO Edward S. Lampert said, "The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take aggressive actions to strengthen our company, fund our transformation and restore Sears Holdings to profitability. We are focusing on our best members, our best categories and our best stores as we work to accelerate our transformation."