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Local Kmart Stores Closing in February

WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — It’s the end of the line for Kmarts in our area and around the country. Kmarts like the one near Wilkes-Barre are slate...

WILKES-BARRE TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- It's the end of the line for Kmarts in our area and around the country.

Kmarts like the one near Wilkes-Barre are slated to close in February.

That announcement was just made.

The company that owns Kmart also owns Sears and is closing 96 Sears and Kmarts nationwide. Those closures will start on December 2, 2019.

The locations on West Front Street in Berwick, East Third Street in Williamsport, and Wilkes-Barre Township Boulevard in Wilkes-Barre Township will close in February.

Signs at the Kmart in Wilkes-Barre Township indicate that shoppers won't be able to buy anything on layaway here any longer This Kmart is one of three in our area that will be closing.

"I'm very upset. It's so close and it's right on my way when I do my run in. I always stop here every Friday I'm here. I can't believe it. I'm really upset," Mary Lou McHugh said.

"I'm up here mostly every day," Tim Lettier said.

The next closest Kmart to the one in Wilkes-Barre Township is in Edwardsville, which is about five miles away.

The Kmart in Edwardsville is set to stay open. However, it has also seen its fair share of tough times. The store in Edwardsville flooded in 2011 and then reopened four months later.

People we spoke to were happy to see it return and relieved it will not be closing.

"Oh, yeah, it's been flooded multiple times and reopened, so apparently it does enough business to stay open and if they're not closing it, obviously it's a survivor," George Cheponis said.

Liquidation sales will start after Thanksgiving.

There's no word how many employees are affected.

Company officials say 182 Sears and Kmarts will remain open throughout the country.

Kmart closed stores back in 2017 because of slumping sales, including one in Dickson City, Lackawanna County.

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