Wichita Falls To Lose Major Retail Outlet Before Years’ End
Sikes Senter Mall is losing one of its major anchor tenants.
Sears announced today that the Wichita Falls store has been added to the list of stores slated to close in 2015. Sears, like many other traditional brick and mortar retail chains, has suffered significant financial hardship over the past several years.
In 2014, Sears Holdings chairman Edward S. Lampert explained the necessity of mortgaging 25 of the chains’ 1,700 stores to secure a $400 million loan for the ailing retailer. In December of 2014, the chain announced that the number of stores on the list of closings would increase to 235 during 2015.
The former Sears, Roebuck & Co. was purchased in 2004 by K-Mart for $11 billion, creating the third largest retail chain in the nation, behind Wal-Mart and displacing Target as the then number three retailer behind Home Depot.
The Wichita Falls Sikes Senter location opened in 1991, replacing the former location in downtown. Sears Wichita Falls currently employs 56 people, some of whom will be eligible for severance packages, according to a corporate spokesperson.
An inventory liquidation sale will begin in mid-October and the store will close by December 20th.