Sears Consolidates Off-mall Stores in Grand Plan

Sears Holdings Corp. will convert 14 Kmart stores to its off-mall Sears Grand format and drop its Sears Essentials stores.

The converted stores, slated to open in May, will bring Sears Grand to a total of 22 stores sprinkled across the U.S. Sears Grand carries the same merchandise as a mall-based Sears store but also has basic groceries, HBC, pharmaceuticals, household goods, CDs, DVDs and toys—all strong categories for Kmart, which merged with Sears in March 2005.

Sears will drop the fledgling Sears Essentials format, whose neighborhood stores have a similar merchandise mix as Sears Grand but are smaller. “There are so many similarities that it doesn’t make sense to carry two off-mall format names,” said Sears spokesperson Chris Brathwaite. “The [Essentials] format has been retooled and we’re giving it a new name.”

The smallest Sears Grand is 150,000 square feet; the biggest Sears Essentials is 135,000, Brathwaite said.

Sears launched Sears Grand in 2003 as a neighborhood-market format whose off-mall locations complement its flagship mall stores and better compete with mass merchandisers and consumer electronics chains (PROMO Sept. 2004).

Last fall, Sears tapped Kmart veteran Julie Younglove-Webb to oversee Sears Grand and Sears Essentials as senior VP-general manager.

Sears Holdings has grown Sears Grand more slowly than it first expected: Original plans called for 12 to 14 Grand stores by the end of 2005. Brathwaite won’t say whether Hoffman Estates, IL-based Sears Holdings plans to add more Sears Grand stores this year.

Marketing for Sears Grand includes media advertising and circulars, handled in-house.