Sears opens stores. Yes, you read it well

Sears is opening stores again. The chain of department stores that have closed hundreds of Sears and Kmart stores in recent years announced this week the opening of three Sears Home & Life stores in May. The stores will be located in Anchorage, AK; Lafayette, LA; and Overland Park, KS. The new stores will feature home appliances, mattresses, home services and connected home products relevant to members and compatible with Alexa and Google+. The stores were designed based on information provided by Sears Appliances & Mattresses stores opened in 2017 in Fort. Collins, CO; Pharr, TX; Honolulu, HI; and Camp Hill, PA. The size of the stores will range from 10,000 to 15,000 square feet. At present, the average Sears store is over 100,000 square feet.

Home & Life stores will also offer several retail services, such as the Welcome Service Desk, where customers can meet Home & Life experts to discuss the appearance of appliances in their home; a buy online, store "kiosk search" kiosk, giving customers access to all Sears products and services; Fin-store pickup of any item purchased on sears.com; the ability to return mmerchandise purchased on sears.com; Icollection of n vehicles; and access to Sears Home Services, which will offer appliance repair services, parts and accessories.

Total retail sales: No, it's not the 1970s. Sears will actually open stores in 2019. The company, which had another chance to regain its life after its bankruptcy earlier this year, still sees a chance to become a shopping destination for sustainable products like store formats. "The new Sears Home & Life stores will offer food categories where Sears has a real strength: home appliances, mattresses and our home service business," said Sears. Peter Boutros, Brand Manager for Sears and Kmart, and President of Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard. "We are here to serve these communities and this is part of our strategy to maintain a presence in markets where our footprint is the size." The ultimate test will be decisive if Sears extends its Home & Life store concept beyond these three test markets.