Macy's detailed its 68 store closings—part of a planned slate of 100 closures the Cincinnati-based retailer announced this past August—concurrently with reporting its November and December results. Same-store sales on an owned and licensed basis were off by 2.1% from the year-ago period, and by 2.7% for owned stores.

“While our sales trend is consistent with the lower end of our guidance, we had anticipated sales would be stronger” for the preceding two months, says Terry Lundgren, the retailer's chairman and CEO. Separately from the Macy's announcements, shopping center REIT CBL & Associates said Wednesday afternoon that it would redevelop four Macy's locations that are slated to close by March 31. Three of those stores—in Bloomington, IL, Louisville, KY and Beaumont, TX—are owned by Macy's, and Chattanooga, TN-based CBL will pay $5 million to acquire them from the retailer.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL—With some of the closings already reported by local news media late last month, Sears Holdings (SHLD) made it official Thursday morning, announcing plans to shutter a total of 150 locations. The beleaguered retailer's latest round of closures comes on the heels of Wednesday afternoon's announcement from Macy's Inc. that 68 of its stores would go dark

Citing “a challenging retail environment,” chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert says SHLD is taking “strong, decisive actions”—that also include selling its Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker—“to stabilize the company and improve our financial flexibility.” He adds that the decision to close stores was “a difficult but necessary step as we take actions to strengthen the company's operations and fund its transformation.”

In all, the latest round of closures includes 109 Kmarts and 41 Sears locations coast to coast. While these stores collectively generated about $1.2 billion in sales over the past 12 months, they generated an adjusted EBITDA loss of approximately $60 million over that same period, according to SHLD. Liquidation sales at the affected locations could begin as early as Friday.

Under terms of the sale agreement with Stanley Black & Decker, SHLD will retain a perpetual license to sell Craftsman-branded products in Sears-branded stores, although the brand's new ownership may also sell the products in non-Sears channels. SHLD is selling the Craftsman business for $525 million at closing and another $250 million in three years. The agreement also includes a 15-year royalty stream on all third-party Craftsman sales to new customers that could yield several hundred million dollars more over time.

Macy's detailed its 68 store closings—part of a planned slate of 100 closures the Cincinnati-based retailer announced this past August—concurrently with reporting its November and December results. Same-store sales on an owned and licensed basis were off by 2.1% from the year-ago period, and by 2.7% for owned stores.

“While our sales trend is consistent with the lower end of our guidance, we had anticipated sales would be stronger” for the preceding two months, says Terry Lundgren, the retailer's chairman and CEO. Separately from the Macy's announcements, shopping center REIT CBL & Associates said Wednesday afternoon that it would redevelop four Macy's locations that are slated to close by March 31. Three of those stores—in Bloomington, IL, Louisville, KY and Beaumont, TX—are owned by Macy's, and Chattanooga, TN-based CBL will pay $5 million to acquire them from the retailer.