Watsonville's Kmart and Sears Stores to Stay Open

Watsonville's Sears and Kmart stores will not be closing down—at least not any time soon.

Earlier this week, the Sears Holding Corporation announced that it would be closing 100-120 of its Kmart and Sears stores due to a decline in sales over the past four years, and a stagnant holiday season: National sales fell 5.2% in the two months before Christmas this year, reported the Los Angeles Times.

The Sears Holding Corporation released the locations for 80 stores in its first wave of closures, which could see 20 or 40 more stores added to it. Most of the stores that are closing appear to be in the Midwest, with only three—two in San Diego, and one in El Monte—closing in the state of California. (The list of stores is included as a PDF at right.)

Roger Jones, independent owner of the Sears in Watsonville and Gilroy, is confident that his stores will not make that list.

"Times are tough right now, in all retail. This was a tough year for everybody. In 2009, 2010 and 2011 the economy was tough, but we're expecting a lot of sales this year," Jones said.

His Watsonville and Gilroy stores are "hometown" stores, meaning they are independently owned and in a different division of Sears, smaller, and less likely to be targeted for closure. Over the holidays his Gilroy store saw an increase in sales, and the Watsonville store held.

Watsonville's Kmart, located directly next to Sears on Freedom Boulevard, was bustling on Thursday, and a store manager was also confident they would not be closing any time soon.

"I can tell you something, real quick. We're not going to close," said a store manager, who did not wish to be named since they had been advised not to talk to the media.

Billionaire financier Edward Lampert bought Kmart out of Chapter 11 in 2003 and brought Sears, Roebuck & Co. in 2005 in an $11.5-billion deal. Sears Holding Corp. plans on selling or subleasing the stores it closes in its attempt to avoid going bankrupt.