Anderson says its final goodbye to Sears

Anderson says its final goodbye to Sears

With the store goes nearly 75 jobs

By Dani Palmer The Herald Bulletin

ANDERSON, Ind. — What was once called the “finest retail store in Madison County” by C.C. Hebling, operating assistant manager of the 1947 Sears, with a bright future for employees as a growing company, according to a grand opening booklet for the ’47 store, is now gone.

In late December, Sears Holding Corp. announced it would close 100 to 120 under-performing stores due to lackluster holiday sales, including the Anderson location in Mounds Mall.

Sunday was its last day and, by early evening, the store was already cleared out; as empty as the store hours sign on the door. A sign thanking customers for their patronage hung on the glass inside the mall, where many people stopped to read and glance inside.

“We’ve come (to Sears) ever since they opened shop out here (at Mounds Mall) for Craftsman tools,” customer Jane Cline, of Anderson, said. “It’s too sad they closed.”

Cline said she and her husband came out around 2 p.m. to pay a bill, but by that time, employees were already locking up and told them to pay at Kmart.

She said her husband always bought his tools — the popular Craftsman line — from Sears and also enjoyed some of the lawn equipment the store had.

It’s so sad to see Sears go, she said, because many don’t want to see another store leave Anderson.

Sears has a long history in the city. It first opened in downtown Anderson in 1928, moving to where Anderson Public Library now stands in 1947 and then to Mounds Mall in 1983.

Cline added that she knows a few people who have worked at the store since it opened at the mall and that it’s sad so many are losing their jobs.

Sears was Mounds Mall’s largest retailer and with the anchor now lifted, nearly 75 jobs have gone away.

And, the future of the space left behind is still unknown.

“(The residents of Anderson) want to keep the mall open,” Cline added. “That’s just another added negative for the mall.”

Keith and Kimberly Carpenter, of Anderson, came out “just to see what they had left over,” Kimberly said.

But they were surprised to walk in around 5 p.m. and find it bare, Keith said.

They weren’t the only ones as some customers walked up to the doors just to find them locked and then turned around to walk back out to their cars; Sears’ final day was their reason for making the trip to the mall.

Keith Carpenter said he didn’t expect it to close as early as it did and that he shopped at Sears “every once in awhile” for the tools he could put into layaway. It was also one of the main reasons they came to the mall, Kimberly Carpenter added.

She said she’s a little disappointed to see it go.

“But I hope they’ll bring in something bigger to attract more customers,” she added.



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