Let's face it. K-Mart hasn't kept pace with Wal-Mart or Target. And Sears can't compete in big ticket electronics unless they market only those items like an HHGreg.

I suspect you never shopped Sears. We bought all of our big ticket electronics from them. We shopped online and in the box stores, only to find that our local Sears store here in HdG had all the information we ran around collecting and would match any price and deliver the appliance!!!!!!

Well, this will hurt a lot of consumers who utilize layaway to purchase big ticket items. What other store offers this? I can not think of any other than TJ Maxx, and they do not sell the things that Kmart and Sears do. They just restructured a few years ago, so this is a shame. Hopefully the stores in MD will remain intact. If Sears closes at Eastpoint, I wonder how that will affect the rest of the stores?

I feel VERY sorry for the employees at these stores. However, I haven't shopped at K-Mart or Sears for years (like 15 years or more). K-Mart had the WORST customer service of any store I've shopped in. Further, they weren't well stocked especially for sale items. Sears' prices for appliances were NOT competitive and could be easily beaten at other stores in the area.

The wife likes to go too Elkton K mart. but honestly, I don't feel it's worth the trip. Wal Mart has more to offer. But I too do not wish to see any one lose there job.

I actually went to that KMart in Fullerton one day and when I was done shopping, the cashier actually stopped ringing up my order halfway through, pulls his cell phone out and starts texting... I swear I thought I was on one of those hidden camera shows.. I waited with my jaw hanging on the floor looking around me to make sure I wasn't dreaming... The lady behind me had the same look I did so I knew I wasn't imagining things.. He finished his text and proceeds with the rest of my order.. I was stunned!! THEN apparently the person he was texting must have texted him back with a real good comeback because with my money in hand, he pulls his phone out to read the reply and busts out laughing... Really... That store is a disgrace and should be #1 on that list...

I'm not surprised to see Kmart fail. Seriously, why do they exist to begin with?

Sears, the problem with them is their sales people and "commission" policy. Think to the last time you walked into the Sears at White Marsh Mall. Specifically, the lower level with all of the appliances, electronics, and home/garden supplies. Those people patrol and swarm the main walkways like hawks. It's ridiculous, and puts you in a defensive frame of mind the minute you walk into the store.

Sears's best days are behind them. I'm not surprised to hear older folks speak kindly of Sears. Back in their days, Sears was actually relevant. You can get price matching at almost any large appliance store.
Sears has been failingly been playing "catch up" to the competition for over a decade.

Send Obama's Win The Future speech to them. Recall that turkey? Lots of hot air, but very little results from this Administration.

Tim: You seriously believe that the current sad state of economic affairs began with GWB or Bill Clinton? You're either seriously misinformed or blindly partisan (perhaps both). Since we're 15 trillion dollars in debt, most of that directly related to out of control entitlement spending perhaps social security (began right after the depression initially intended to be a safety net for widows), Medicare and Medicaid and a host of other programs begun as part of the "great society" during the Johnson administration, and/or the undermining of FNMA/FLMAC underwriting/qualification standards made possible via congressional manipulation as justified by community reinvestment act signed by Jimmy Carter in 1977. Does any of that ring any bells with you?

Tim...for sake of illustration:
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258
71% of federal expenditures are used to provide; a myriad of programs from food stamps to reimbursing states for school lunch costs, welfare, medicare, medicaid, social security, benefits including 100% coverage for health care for federal retirees, educational reimbursements and costs of running the Dept. of Education which wasn't even created until 1980 and which has overseen the continuing slide in minimum achievement, and of course interest of the debt we've piled up borrowing all this money to keep the social safety net in tact; even in cases where abject obvious fraud is rampant. It took far more than a decade...it took incremental changes to the idea of what the role of the federal government ought to be over decades...beginning at the turn of the last century and accelerating to the mess we see today.

Hey Bart...reading is fundemental. Defense spending is approx. 20% of the federal budget and I might remind anyone who's forgotten of all the things the feds spend money on "providing for a common defense" is one of the few expenditures constitutionally prescribed. Quit simply, the federal government is out of control.

Tim: To believe that you can separate the housing bubble from unbelieveable public debt won't hunt. Certainly, the housing bubble was a catalyst here, but mounting and overwhelming debt hold us back from having the ability to fix this problem. Ask the folks in Greece, in Italy, in Portugal and Ireland what debt will do...it is within a matter of years, not decades that using current math our interest on the debt will exceed all the programs we've created, eating greater and greater amounts until there's nothing left but debt payment and no ability to pay for any social safety net whatsoever. It's not if at this point, but when the collapse will come and it's no one party responsible...it's not even only the politicians but all of us who bought into the idea that government ought to be our safety net for everything and demand our benefits without care or concern for the bankruptcy we're forcing on the next generation.

Karl: I'm not going to be able to 'keep up' on this thread much longer.

The reason European countries are in the shape they are in is because of their Debt to GDP ratio.

Respectfully, you seem to still ignore the fact that, when Clinton left office, our national debt was about 6 trillion. Our debt to GDP ratio was excellent.

We actually agree on the fact we've got too much debt. I mean I think anyone with a high school education can figure that much out. We just don't agree with what actually caused the debt to get this high.

I've provided a direct debt link that is irrefutable. Your counterarguments are on tangents based on your own personal agenda - which is reducing government spending (in general). Different argument from where we started.
I actually am a big believer in smaller federal government and more state fiscal responsibilities.
This is a whole different tangent though, a discussion for a different time :)

The Sears/K-Mart closings should be kept in perspective. They are only closing 100 stores out of the 4,000 they have.

Sears bought K-Mart when it was about to go under and now its dragging Sears. KMart stores are often dirty w/poor displays. They should have kept their auto centers. Sears needs to revamp. Online sales has changed retailing. You need new reasons to go to a store. Maybe the era of the department store is over.

I could care less about Sears or K-Mart going under. I feel very bad for the hard working employees who will lose their jobs. Sears has gouged the public for years by charging very high interest rates on their revolving credit card accounts. Of course they are not alone in this. As far as K-Mart is concerned, I used to work part-time a long time ago for them. They could care less about their employees. If you need proof, look up employee and Federal Government lawsuits against K-Mart for unfair labor practices. Such as laying off employees right before they were going to retire. Look it up on Google. There are numerous individual lawsuits against K-Mart by former employees. Once again< I really feel bad for the regular employees of K-Mart and Sears. They are hard working people

Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. They are only closing 125 stores out of 4,000 nationally...a tiny fraction. Only two or three at the most are likely to be in Maryland. To put this in proper context, you should note the much-larger K-Mart closures back in 2003 or so. They shut around 600 stores, includng eight or nine in Maryland, as I recall.

Someone mentioned than K-Mart had purchased Sears. It was actually the other way around. Sears bought K-Mart.
Both companies, especially K-Mart are behind the times.
It seems to me that Wal-Mart better watch their P's & Q's.
They could be next. I have noticed their service and quality of products slipping lately.

I don't doubt what you say. What's crazy is that when the purchase occurred, all the reports I saw said that Sears was the buyer. Like you said, no big deal.

Sears is just one more name added to the list of retailers consumers stopped doing business with for whatever reason! Times change, people change and businesses who refuse to change fail. This is a very simple game!

Here's a list of the used to be businesses that are no more.

Braeger Gutman's, Cooks, Epstein's, Bon-Ton, Garfinckel's, Hecht's, Hochschild Kohn's, Hutzler's, S. Klein, Lazarus, Peskins, Stewart's

I remember all of these stores. There was one department store that used to be owned by a company called Vornado. The department store was called Two-Guys. It was similar to Wal-Mart. Although I thought it was better in some ways.
They had an automotive, food, food court and anything you could think of. That problem was the retail grocers union. After a few employee strikes they went out of business. It was a shame because they were an excellent place to shop. Another store which went under was E.J. Korvette.

Douglas, you stole my thunder. Lol

Sorry to say, I never ate there. Way back in the sixties I worked part-time at Two-Guys on Bel-Air road in the city. I worked full-time for the State of Maryland in Brooklandville near Towson. Sometimes for lunch we would go to Eudowood. That brings back plenty of memories.

A little update and a little history... first 79 closings announced today. ONE in MD... Ellicott City. KMart was THE place to shop... it helped to put TOPPS and AMES out of business... SEARS out-lasted Montgomery Wards. Now, its WalMart and Target putting KMart out of business... and so the business cycle goes. When the competition is killed, will WalMart then raise its prices? Will the next Department store chain come along and knock them out too? Will WalMart become an illegal monopoly on food, clothing and everything else when we no longer have any competitors from whom to buy?

I worked at the family fish house also for 3 years. Does any one know of anyone else that worked there