Sears shutters Athens store

Sears—in Athens since 1925—is in Athens no longer: the store on Atlanta Highway made its final sale and closed its doors Sunday afternoon. Sears has been closing stores around the state and across the country.

From Natalie Dreier, Cox Media Group 

Two retail staples are shuttering more stores.

An additional 96 Sears and Kmart stores across the country will be going out of business and will close by February.

The latest round of store closings by the parent company of the two iconic chains, Transformco, will close 51 Sears and 45 Kmart locations by early next year. Liquidation sales start Dec. 2, just days after Black Friday and Thanksgiving sales begin, USA Today reported.

Over the course of the past 15 years, more than 3,500 Sears and Kmart stores have gone out of business, with 250,000 employees losing their jobs.

After February, the company will have only 182 stores remaining, USA Today reported.

When the company filed for bankruptcy just over a year ago, there were almost 700 Sears and Kmart stores, CNN reported.

The closings do not affect Sears Hometown, a chain of independently owned stores that sell appliances, sporting goods and tools, according to CNN.