Westwood Kmart 1 Of 2 Remaining In NJ

WESTWOOD, NJ — And then there were two.

With the recent closure of a Kmart in Kearny, first reported by NJ.com, only two Kmart stores remain in New Jersey, including one in Westwood Plaza. Another store is still open in Avenel.

Kearny isn't the only store to close in recent years, as stores in Wayne, Trenton and Somers Point were also affected in a string of bankruptcy-related closures.

But some closed stores do have a retail future.

A 2020 Patch report said that Target planned to open a 91,000 square foot facility at a former Kmart location in Wall. And Target's website indicates that another store will open at the newly closed Kmart location in Kearny.

Many store closings came as the result of a bankruptcy filing in 2018, but things haven't gotten much better for the retailer.

Both Sears and Kmart were acquired by Transformco out of bankruptcy, but an additional 18 stores were slated to close before the end of the first quarter of 2021, according to USA Today. The publication reported that both Sears and Kmart collectively have closed more than 3,500 stores and cut about 250,000 jobs in the past 15 years.

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