Sears store in Fort Kent prepares to close its doors
Courtesy / Sears Hometown Fort Kent
The Sears Hometown store in Fort Kent is going out of business and on Friday began liquidating its $500,000 inventory.
The Sears Hometown store in Fort Kent — one of just five locations in Maine for the famed retailer — is shutting its doors.
The store at 204 West Main St., which stocks appliances, home and garden supplies, hardware and more, began a liquidation sale Friday and will close permanently when the sale is complete, according to a Facebook post.
After maintaining nearly $500,000 in inventory, the store was selling items at discounts of as much as 70%.
“It has been a pleasure serving the Valley and beyond for the last 10 years,” owner Alan Susee said. “To our loyal customers, thank you for your support.”
Local residents, at least those responding on Facebook, reacted to the closing with sadness and shock.
“So sorry to hear. I will miss having Sears in our town,” wrote one. Another commented: “Very sad news. This is a big loss for Fort Kent.”
By Monday morning Susee’s announcement had drawn 43 comments and been shared 142 times.
Susee gave no reason for the store’s abrupt closing, and attempts to reach him for comment were unsuccessful. But in a 2018 interview with the Fiddlehead Focus, he said online purchasing and the lack of local patronage were the main reasons small-town retailers were going out of business.
“We’re no different than any other small business; we only survive if people shop here,” he told the newspaper at the time.
Susee’s and other Sears Hometown stores are independently owned businesses that receive inventory and marketing support from Sears, but do not operate as typical, fee-based franchises. There are about 400 Hometown locations in the U.S., mostly in smaller markets that cannot support a Sears department store. In addition to the Fort Kent store, Maine is home to Hometown retailers in Caribou and Farmington; department stores are in Brunswick and South Portland.
The Hometown operations and a discount business were spun off in 2012 from the former Sears Holdings Corp., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year and was acquired by a Connecticut hedge fund, ESL Investments. In October, ESL acquired Sears Hometown through a holding company.
It’s not clear if the Fort Kent closing is at all related to that acquisition.
On Sunday, as the liquidation sale continued, Susee posted, “The last three days have been both physically and emotionally draining. I am grateful for the help of good friends and family.”
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Having been a prior Hometown Store Owner myself i wish Alan and his family the best of luck in the future. Unfortunately, although it is a great opportunity, there just isn't enough profit passed on to the retail owners.
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