Following poor holiday sales, Sears Holdings Corp. yesterday announced that it plans to close at least 100 of its Sears and Kmart stores, although the company did not disclose whether any of those targeted are in Massachusetts.
Sears has struggled in recent years as competitors such as Target and Walmart adapted more quickly to changing consumer habits to lure cash-strapped customers looking for quality deals.
Indeed, while the recently concluded holiday season was a moderate success for retailers, it was a disaster for Sears Holdings. The Chicago-area store owner reported revenues dropping 5.2 percent for its most recent quarter, attributing most of the falloff to declines in sales of consumer electronics, apparel, and layaway.
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Meanwhile IHS Global Insight estimated that overall holiday retail sales are expected to be about 4.8 percent higher than last year, partially due to higher prices. The Lexington forecasting firm noted that consumers shopped in spurts and were careful with their dollars.
The company has more than 3,000 stores in the United States and 52 locations in this state - though fewer than half of those are the type of “full-line’’ stores that are targeted for closure. A representative did not return a call for comment yesterday.
In the last year and a half, Sears Holdings has shuttered several dozen stores - though none in Massachusetts. It has not yet detailed where the latest closings will occur, nor how many jobs would be cut.
Analysts said that Sears and Kmart’s latest news was not a surprise given the harsh economic environment confronting retailers.
“When you have a bunch of big companies fighting for market share, there are going to be winners and losers,’’ said Chris G. Christopher Jr., senior principal economist with IHS Global Insight.
In a statement on its website, the company said it is trying to cut fixed costs by $100 million to $200 million, reduce inventory by $300 million, and “accelerate the transformation of our business model.’’ As part of that overall strategy, the company said, it would stop supporting “marginally performing stores.’’
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“These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail - at the store, online, and in the home,’’ chief executive Lou D’Ambrosio said in the statement.
Some market watchdogs remained optimistic about the retailer’s chances.
“What they are doing is what I call a cleansing. They are at a point where they are saying, ‘You know what? Underperforming stores - we’re getting out from underneath them,’ ’’ said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst with NPD Group Inc., a market research firm in New York. “Sometimes smaller is stronger.’’
Cohen said he views the Sears problems as an “extension of the recession’’ and said he expects other retailers to also consider thinning their ranks of stores in the coming months.
“What the recession basically taught us was that you really have to assess every individual store, every individual performance,’’ he said. “This is a transition [period], not an indication of a disaster waiting to happen.’’
Others were less hopeful, given the competition Sears and Kmart face, and the lack of investment in the chains in recent years.
“They’re very tired as a concept - their locations are tired. They are just not on the front end or the cutting edge of anything,’’ Mike Tesler, president of Retail Concepts, a Norwell consulting firm. “Price-wise they get beat by Target and Walmart and Costco and BJ’s and online.’’
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And time and again, Tesler added, the retailer’s efforts to improve have fallen short. An ad campaign introduced in the early 1990s touting the “softer side of Sears’’ never “gained any traction,’’ he said, and the company’s purchase of the Land’s End clothing line only seemed to dilute the apparel brand.
Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ailworth.