Amid Sears closures, B.C. store will remain open

Lakeview Square Mall's Sears location will not be among the roughly 50 stores the company plans to close after weak fourth-quarter sales, a company spokesperson said Tuesday.

The Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based retail company expects fourth quarter sales to come to $7.3 billion for the quarter that ended Jan. 30, falling short of year-over-year comparisons and analyst expectations, according to a USA Today report. As a result, the company plans to accelerate store closures and purge some of its assets, which could include the sale of the Sears Auto Center business.

Sears warns Q4 worse than expected, accelerates store closures

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USA Today reported Sears will speed up 50 planned closures of unprofitable stores and will look to cut costs up to $650 million.

Company spokesperson Howard Riefs said the stores will close during the next couple of months, but the Battle Creek location will remain open.

Sears is one of two remaining original anchor stores at Lakeview Square Mall along with JCPenney. The mall's other original anchor, Hudson's, since has been rebranded as a Marshall Field & Co. and now is a Macy's. Lakeview Square's Macy's store also was not among a series of scheduled closures announced by the Cincinnati-based retail chain in January.

Contact Dillon Davis at 269-966-0698 or dwdavis@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DillonDavis