The retail carnage that usually comes around every January is sweeping across the Twin Cities.

On Thursday, Sears Holdings said its Sears stores in Coon Rapids and Mankato are among the 150 unprofitable Sears and Kmart stores it’s closing in its latest round of store closures. The Kmart store in Detroit Lakes is also being shut down.

Last year, the struggling company closed the Sears store at Eden Prairie Center and a Kmart in West St. Paul.

The news comes one day after Macy’s disclosed 68 of the 100 stores it plans to close, including its landmark in downtown Minneapolis on Nicollet Mall, a store that many Minnesotans still refer to as Dayton’s. That store will close in March. Macy’s is also shuttering its locations in Grand Forks, N.D. and La Crosse, Wisc.

Earlier this week, the women’s clothing retailer The Limited it shutting down its five metro area stores in the Twin Cities as well as many more across the nation as the chain heads toward bankruptcy. The last day for those stores will be Saturday.

This month is a popular time of year for retailers to prune their store portfolios after they assess their holiday sales and which stores continue to underperform. The store closures reflect how changing consumer habits, such as the shift toward online shopping and at offprice chains, has hurt department stores and many mall-based stores.

Sears, which was once the largest U.S. retailer, has been losing money for years. On Thursday, it said that same-store sales at Sears and Kmart in the first two months of the holiday quarter declined between 12 and 13 percent.

“Many of these stores have struggled with their financial performance for years and we have kept them open to maintain local jobs and in the hope that they would turn around,” CEO Eddie Lampert said in a statement. “But in order to meet our objective of returning to profitability, we have to make tough decisions and will continue to do so, which will give our better performing stores a chance at success.”

The 150 store closings, which include 108 Kmart stores and 42 Sears stores, represent about 10 percent of the company’s 1,500 stores. Liquidation sales will begin as soon as Friday and the stores will close by the end of March.

On Thursday, Sears also said it would sell its Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker Inc. for about $900 million. Sears will continue to sell the products in its stores, but Stanley plans to expand their presence in other stores outside of Sears.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Sears is shutting down 150 more stores, yet another sign of how tough it is for former kings of the retail industry to compete in a world now dominated by Amazon.

Sears said on Thursday that it would close 109 Kmart stores and 41 of its namesake Sears outlets. The announcement came on the same day that Sears disclosed plans to sell its iconic Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker.

The company did not say how many workers would be affected by the store closures.

But a spokesperson said that most of them were part-time workers and that "we are committed to treating these associates with respect and compassion during this process."

Sears also closed 78 stores last year and more than 200 in 2015.

The news also follows disappointing holiday results from other retail stores: Macy's -- which is also closing stores and laying off workers -- and Kohl's.

Sears CEO Eddie Lampert said in a statement that the company was "taking strong, decisive actions...to stabilize the company and improve our financial flexibility in what remains a challenging retail environment."

The company noted that while the 150 stores collectively reported sales of $1.2 billion over the past 12 months, they also lost about $60 million. Sears has to stop the bleeding somehow, because the entire company is losing money.

"The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take actions to strengthen the company's operations and fund its transformation," Lampert said.

"Many of these stores have struggled with their financial performance for years and we have kept them open to maintain local jobs and in the hopes that they would turn around," he added.

Lampert stressed that the only way for the whole company to return to profitability will be for Sears to focus more on its better performing stores. (Click here for a list of the Kmart and Sears stores that are getting shut down.)

The company said that workers at the closing stores will receive severance payments and also have the opportunity to apply for positions at other Sears and Kmart stores in their area. And liquidation sales at the affected stores will begin on Friday.

Sears stock rose more than 5 percent on Thursday despite the bad news. But Macy's, Kohl's and other retailers sank.

Meanwhile, Amazon rose more than 2 percent. </s> Sears Holdings — the parent company of Sears and Kmart — announced on Friday that it will shutter eight of its namesake Sears department stores and 35 Kmart locations, adding to the list of 236 stores Sears has announced plans to shut down in 2017.

With the newest round of closings, Sears Holdings is poised to close down about 20% of its locations.

The company said in a blog post that the store closures are part of an ongoing effort to “focus on our best stores and return to profitability.”

“This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs,” Chief Executive Officer Eddie Lampert said in the post.

Sears said it is focusing on bolstering digital sales and is also testing out small, specialized “concept stores” that offer Sear’s best-selling items.

Streamlining its retail footprint is part of an effort to restore vendors’ confidence in Sears, the company said. Some vendors have “reduced” their support for the company over the past year — “thereby placing additional pressure on our business,” according to the blog post.

Once America’s largest retailer, the company has struggled to stay afloat as customers turn away from traditional brick-and-mortar stores to shop online.

Sears warned in March that the company has “substantial doubt” about its ability to remain in business. Its losses have surpassed $10 billion since 2010, the last time it turned a profit. Sears Canada, which Sears Holdings spun off in 2012, filed for bankruptcy protection last month.

Sears closed 240 stores last year and 53 in 2015.

It’s hardly the only retailer to be experiencing such woes.

Other department stores like Macy’s and JCPenney have announced layoffs and store closures over the past few months.

There have been about 5,300 store closing announcements so far this year, according to retail think tank Fung Global Retail & Technology.

You can see the full list of the stores announced today here. (pdf) </s> Here we go again.

Sears Holdings ( shld ) on Friday announced a new round of store closings , this one involving 43 locations. The company framed the move as a strategic decision, one that will aid in its hoped-for return to profitability.

The retailer, which operates the Sears department stores and Kmart discount chain, has already announced 265 closings this fiscal year. The latest paring of the fleet will leave the company with 1,140 stores, barely more than half the number of stores it operated in 2012. In this latest round of shutterings, 35 Kmart stores and eight Sears stores will close. (See list below.)

That's likely not the last of it, either. In a blog post, company CEO Eddie Lampert said more closings are coming.

In May, Sears reported disastrous first quarter results , with comparable sales down 12.4% at Sears, and 11.2% at Kmart in the first quarter. The disappointing sales numbers weren't new -- Sears lost about $10 billion in the last six years -- but there are signs the retailer is reaching a crisis point. Earlier this year, the company implemented a $1.25 billion cost-cutting plan, and acknowledged fears it could very well go bankrupt.

"We have fought hard for many years to return unprofitable stores to a competitive position and to preserve jobs," Lampert wrote in the blog post. "As a result, we had to absorb corresponding losses in the process. So, it is obvious that we don't make decisions to close stores lightly."

Lampert, a hedge fund manager who engineered the merger of Kmart and Sears in 2004, has long touted his work to reposition the company in response to large-scale shifts in the retail industry. (In his estimation, this means less physical space, as customers now expect more focused, edited assortments, and a focus on membership-based shopping.)

In recent years, Sears' has moved to protect its cash pile by spinning off its best properties into a real estate investment trust, as well as subleasing and leasing store space. The rationale is that smaller, focused stores are more relevant to today's shoppers. Sears recently opened a small store in Texas focused on mattresses and appliances, part of a new format the company is testing.

It's questionable that an additional 43 stores and experimenting with new store formats will be enough to move the needle for a retailer with 1,000 locations. Indeed, Sears has closed hundreds of weak stores in the last few years, yet comparable sales - a metric that strips out the impact of newly closed or open stores- have continued to relentlessly fall.

Here are the stores involved in the latest round of closures: </s> HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – Just four days into 2017, Sears Holdings announced the closure of dozens of additional Kmart and Sears locations.

On Wednesday, the company informed workers at 78 Kmart Stores and 26 Sears stores that their locations would be closing. The announcement came days after employees at another 30 Kmart stores and 16 Sears stores across the country were informed their outlets would be shuttered.

Most of the stores will be closing their doors by the end of March 2017.

A statement from the Sears Holdings says, "The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take actions to strengthen the Company’s operations and fund its transformation. Many of these stores have struggled with their financial performance for years and we have kept them open to maintain local jobs and in the hopes that they would turn around. But in order to meet our objective of returning to profitability, we have to make tough decisions and will continue to do so, which will give our better performing stores a chance at success. Eligible associates impacted by these store closures will receive severance and will have the opportunity to apply for open positions at area Kmart or Sears stores.”

Liquidation sales will begin as early as January 6 at all closing stores.

All stores above will close at the end of March except for the following locations:

* Sears Auto Center will be closed at this location </s> Two more Kmart stores in MIchigan are set to close, another step in the long-term shrinkage of the one-time retail giant.

Stores in Monroe and Escanaba are on the list of pending closings, according to a statement released Friday by Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based Sears Holdings Inc.

The list includes eight Sears and 35 Kmart stores nationwide. The stores are set the close by early October, Sears Holdings said.

The closings add to earlier closings totaling 265 stores already announced this year, including the Sears store at Macomb Mall in Roseville and the original Kmart store in Garden City.

Sears and Kmart have struggled with declining sales resulting from heavy competition from discounters like Walmart Stores Inc., the shift toward online sales dominated by Amazon.com Inc., and a lack of investment in its own stores. The company has been relying on sales of its real estate to help keep it afloat.

Sears Chairman Edward Lampert said the company is on track to get to its goal of $1.125 billion in annual cost savings as part of a cost-cutting program.

This story has been corrected to reflect that the stores closing are Kmart stores, not Sears stores. </s> NEW YORK (AP) — Struggling department store chain Sears says it’s closing even more stores as it tries to turn around its business.

Sears Holdings Corp. CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post Friday that the company would close another eight Sears and 35 Kmart stores that are unprofitable by early October. Hundreds of store closings have already been announced this year.

Sears had said in March that there was “substantial doubt” it could continue after years of bleeding money, though it has insisted that its actions to regroup should help reduce that risk. With more people shopping online, mall foot traffic has dropped.

Lampert noted Friday that Sears has opened smaller stores to attract customers and is on track to cut $1.25 billion in yearly costs.

There were 624 Kmart stores and 651 Sears stores as of the end of April.

WHAT OTHERS ARE CLICKING ON: </s> NEW YORK — Struggling department store chain Sears says it’s closing even more stores as it tries to turn around its business.

Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post Friday that the company would close an additional eight Sears and 35 Kmart stores that are unprofitable by early October. Hundreds of store closings have already been announced this year.

Sears had said in March that there was “substantial doubt” it could continue after years of bleeding money, though it has insisted that its actions to turn around its business should help reduce that risk. With more people shopping online, mall foot traffic has dropped.

Lampert noted Friday that Sears has opened smaller stores to attract customers and is on track to cut $1.25 billion in yearly costs. </s> A Sears store seen in 2014 in Coral Gables, Florida. Joe Raedle/Getty Images Sears Holdings is closing 43 more stores in the US, in addition to the 265 closings that had already been announced this year.

The company announced the latest closures on Friday.

The new list of closures includes 35 Kmart stores and eight Sears stores.

The closings will bring Sears' store count to less than 1,140, down from 2,073 five years ago.

"This is part of a strategy both to address losses from unprofitable stores and to reduce the square footage of other stores because many of them are simply too big for our current needs," Sears CEO Eddie Lampert said in a blog post on the closures.

Sears announced its first round of store closures in January. Three more rounds have been announced since then.

If you work at Sears and have a story to tell, email this reporter at hpeterson@businessinsider.com
Sears Holdings announces that 108 Kmart and 42 Sears stores will close in the United States in 2017, affecting retailers in 40 states. The company also announced it is selling its trademark Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker for $900 million.