Sears Hometown to close in Cudahy after less than a year in business

Erik S. Hanley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·2 min read
Sears Hometown, 6077 S. Packard Ave. will close soon. An employee confirmed the closure and all items bear a "store closing event" or markdown sign. There are no signs indicating the imminent closure on the outside of the building.
Sears Hometown, 6077 S. Packard Ave. will close soon. An employee confirmed the closure and all items bear a "store closing event" or markdown sign. There are no signs indicating the imminent closure on the outside of the building.

The Sears Hometown store in Cudahy is closing soon.

Yellow signs indicating a “store closing event” with various markdowns ranging from 30% to 50% are on all items in the store, including mattresses, washers and dryers and smaller household essentials like cleaners, bins, tissue and baggies. Tools remain, as well, featuring high markdowns.

However, there are no signs outside the business at 6077 S. Packard Ave. indicating the imminent closure.

One store employee confirmed the store is closing and said the markdowns have been “pretty aggressive.”

The employee was not told a specific date for the closure, although it appears to be coming quickly and likely shy of the business’s one-year anniversary. It opened in late 2021.

RELATED: Remember Kmart? Here’s how all 10 of the former suburban stores have been repurposed

Sears Hometown, 6077 S. Packard Ave. will close soon. An employee confirmed the closure, and all items bear a "store closing event" or markdown sign.
Sears Hometown, 6077 S. Packard Ave. will close soon. An employee confirmed the closure, and all items bear a "store closing event" or markdown sign.

City Administrator Casey Griffiths said the city has not been informed of the closing and he is not aware of a sale of the building or property.

“We have spoken to some developers about the property in terms of allowable uses, city zoning requirements, etc., but there have been no concrete proposals and, to the best of our knowledge, no offers have been made,” he said.

A customer service representative for Sears Hometown said that the store page had already been removed from the company website.

A manager at the Cudahy store refused to comment on the closure.

Sears Hometown is not associated with Sears Holdings Corp., which previously declared bankruptcy. Instead, it’s a locally owned retail business selling appliances, some furniture, automotive and home goods.

Kmart built the store in 1968, and it closed in 2019 as the last Kmart in Milwaukee County.

During the coronavirus pandemic, the building was repurposed into a vaccination clinic in early 2021. It was also used as a pop-up Spirit Halloween.

Before these uses, U-Haul proposed creating a storage retail center in October 2019, but the city rejected it.

Contact Erik S. Hanley at erik.hanley@jrn.com. Like his Facebook page and follow him on Twitter at @ES_Hanley.

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Sears Hometown to close in Cudahy after less than a year in business