Sears Grand in Thornton, Colorado... CLOSING!?

Front of Sears Grand*

Price Checker inside of Sears Grand*

 

    Unfortunately, it appears that Sears is now closing the Thornton Sears Grand. At the time of writing, this is the first and only known location to exist in Colorado.

    Sears Grand opened at this location in 2005, having it's grand opening on October 22nd according to the DPL. To this very day, it still reflects the historic and unique "Grand" signage although it has reduced the variety and amount of products available closer to that of a normal Sears store.

    Sears Grands were intended to be clean and modern looking. They were meant to be that one stop shop sort of like a mix between Menards, Walmart, Kohls, and other brands, having everything from tools and hardware to food and clothing.

    Although it doesn't have everything it originally had, you still can capture that vibe at the Thornton store, as video'd below in 2019. This store had "closing" jobs posted on sites like Indeed, discovered by Optopolis and the rest of the community on 2/12/2021.

    Sears opened the first Sears Grand in 2003 in Utah, and it seems that this would be part of Eddie Lampert's interest in buying out the brand as a whole. Today, the first Sears Grand is long gone and replaced by two other stores, including a Burlington.

Last Kmart in Colorado closing 2020**

    As soon as Kmart and Sears, both somewhat struggling brands at the time, were merged into one company, a lot of people began fearing the end. Eddie began to experiment though. He tried turning Kmarts into Sears Grand stores and Sears Essentials. It flopped. If it would ever have helped bring the two brands back into a stronger position, it appears it was too little, too late. All the Kmarts that were converted into Sears Grand and Sears Essentials stores either converted back to Kmart or closed permanently. Any remaining Sears Grand stores out there that were original would begin cutting back products to what the average Sears store carried, ultimately defeating the purpose of the Sears Grand name.

    This likely influenced the closure of so many of these stores to where we are today with two left in the world-La Cucamonga, CA and Thornton, CO. Now with this store along with five standard full-line Sears closing, as well as under 30 other stores remaining in the US, it's a very concerning sign for the brand, seemingly with no where to go except down.

    There are reports that there will be three more sets of closures which together will close all the stores for good, all of which are expected to be released this year. The closure of this Sears will leave exactly three other TransformCo stores in the Mountain Time Zone: one Kmart in Hamilton, MT; one Sears Appliances in Fort Collins, CO; and one full line Sears in El Paso, TX.

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*Taken by Optopolis on YouTube in 2019

**Taken by Optopolis on YouTube in 2020