When was the last time you shopped at Sears? The 128-year-old company, whose stores and mail-order catalogs were once a mainstay of the American retail landscape, has been sliding into irrelevance as 21st century shoppers find more compelling places to buy their clothes and household goods. At Westfield Montgomery Mall, the presence of a dowdy Sears store seems oddly out of step with a $90 million renovation designed to lure upscale customers. So this week, when reports surfaced about yet another round of Sears closings, we wondered whether it might be time for that store to make a graceful exit. But a company spokesman assures Store Reporter that’s not going to happen. The Montgomery Mall Sears store and its neighboring auto center are “not impacted” by impending closings and will continue to operate as usual, the spokesman says.
