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Springfield Will Be Losing Its Sears Store This Spring

Mike Mozart
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Flickr.com

The Sears store at Springfield’s Gateway Mall is closing this spring. KLCC’s Brian Bull reports.

Altogether, nearly 40 Sears stores will close in April or May across the U.S.  It’s part of a larger action taken by Sears Holdings, its corporate office in Illinois.

Robert Killen is with the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.  He says the news came as a bit of a shock for him and others.  He says more than a century ago though, Sears – with its mail-order catalog – revolutionized and disrupted retail.

Credit Heather / Flickr.com
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Flickr.com
A page from a 1925 edition of the Sears-Roebuck catalog.

“Now retail’s been disrupted again by the internet," Killen tells KLCC.  "And an entirely new way of shopping and that makes it hard for organizations with these really enormous brick and mortar stores, that have to exist to house large quantities of product. 

"And we’re seeing that not just with Sears, but throughout the entire retail ecosystem.”

As to the Sears employees who will soon be out of work, Killen says there’s never a good time to be out of a job.  But he says Oregon’s unemployment rate – most recently at 4.3 percent – will hopefully provide a favorable job market.

Killen adds the Chamber will soon meet to discuss new opportunities in the space Sears will vacate in a few months.

Copyright 2017, KLCC.

Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.