Several Stores In Louisiana Closing Soon

Several stores are closing their doors for good in the coming months. Sears Holdings announces Kmart locations in Gonzales and Jefferson Parish, as well as Sears in Gretna and Cortana Mall in Baton Rouge will close by this April. LSU marketing professor Dan Rice says in Sears’ case, the company looked at places where there’s overlap.

“Having a Sears in the mall at Cortana and a Sears in the Mall of Louisiana suggests that maybe there’s enough coverage there with just one store, and so you don’t need all that extra expenditure to get those consumers,” Rice said.

The Limited is shutting down nationwide, meaning all 5 stores in Louisiana will lock their doors permanently this Saturday, and the Macys in Kenner is closing in the spring. Rice says online retailers could be impacting demand at these stores, since more and more people are shopping online.

“They’re starting to lessen the demand of having so many stores. There just might not be as much business going on in brick and mortar stores as there used to be,” Rice said.

Rice says there are a lot of implications with stores closing, including employees having to find new jobs. He adds that big names retailers leaving could pose a problem for malls looking to fill that vacant space because stores like Sears are often known as anchor stores.

“Other retailers will probably be somewhat cautious, looking at the fact that Sears has been there for a long time and has decided that it’s not making sense for them to stay. So it might give other retailers additional pause before they jump in there,” Rice said.