Sears to shutter Pine Bluff department store this summer

A customer secures a new washing machine purchased at a Sears Holdings Corp. store in the back of a pickup truck in Richmond, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013.  Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
A customer secures a new washing machine purchased at a Sears Holdings Corp. store in the back of a pickup truck in Richmond, California, U.S., on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Two weeks after announcing the closure of its Little Rock store as part of cost-cutting efforts, Sears said Friday that it will also shutter its Pine Bluff location later this year.

Howard Riefs, spokesman for Sears’ parent company, Illinois-based Sears Holdings Corp., said in an email to Arkansas Online that the Sears department store and auto center at Pines Mall, 2901 Pines Mall Drive, will close in early August.

“Store closures are part of a series of actions we’re taking to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model,” the statement read in part.

Riefs said the liquidation sale at Pine Bluff's Sears will begin May 19.

Eligible employees at the Pine Bluff store will receive severance and have the opportunity to apply for jobs at other Sears or Kmart stores in Arkansas, he said.

In late April, the Little Rock location was announced to be one of 10 Sears stores to close in late July, Arkansas Online previously reported. A liquidation sale at the store in Arkansas' capital city has begun.

Despite the announced closures, Sears still has department store locations in North Little Rock, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Hot Springs and Jonesboro. The company also operates a number of smaller, hometown stores in cities across the state.

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