Kmart has announced it will shutter its Marshalltown retail store over Labor Day Weekend.

Officials confirmed that employees were notified Tuesday that the department store, located at 1720 S. Center St., will close its doors effective Sunday, Sept. 3.

Store Manager Jackie Salzgeber confirmed the store’s impending closing, but deferred further comment to corporate officials.

Sears Holding, the parent company of Kmart and Sears, released an internal list of 72 stores — 49 Kmarts, 16 Sears and seven Sears Auto Centers, that will close in September, according to Business Insider. Marshalltown and one other Iowa Kmart outlet, located in Iowa City, were on that list.

Repeated calls from the Times-Republican to Sears Holding were not returned by press time. It’s unclear how many local employees will lose their jobs.

The news that the Marshalltown store will close its doors was frustrating news for local economic development officials.

“We are obviously disappointed with the announcement that our Marshalltown Kmart will be closing on Sept. 3,” said Marshalltown Regional Partnership CEO David Barajas. “It was just earlier this year that Kmart announced some other store closings in Iowa. In today’s day and age, retail brick and mortar stores are having to reinvent themselves to be able to compete in a world of online purchases. We will continue to work with all of our retailers, including our local retailers to help provide an economic environment in Marshalltown that’s conducive to retail growth.”

Sears Holdings, the owner of Kmart and Sears retail stores across the country, has been struggling the last several years, closing a number of locations, including the announcement this past January that 78 Kmarts and 26 Sears stores would shut their doors in April.

At that time, three Iowa Kmart locations — Dubuque, Sioux City and Waterloo — were given the bad economic news. Prior to that, the company had also closed Kmart locations in other Iowa communities including Ames, Cedar Rapids, Clive, Coralville and Ottumwa.

Sears Holding recently noted in a report regarding its First Quarter 2017 revenues that the company generated revenues of $4.3 billion; that’s compared to revenues of $5.4 billion for the First Quarter 2016.

A statement from the company’s website said “the year-over-year decline in revenues was primarily driven by having fewer Kmart and Sears full-line stores in operation, which accounted for $557 million of the decline, as well as an 11.9 percent decline in comparable store sales during the quarter, which accounted for $417 million of the decline.

“At Kmart, comparable store sales decreased 11.2 percent during the first quarter of 2017, primarily driven by declines in the grocery and household, pharmacy, apparel and home categories. Sears Domestic comparable store sales decreased 12.4 percent during the quarter, primarily driven by decreases in the home appliances, apparel and lawn and garden categories.”

Local Sears store not impacted

Meanwhile, Marshalltown’s Sears Hometown Store, which is a privately-owned franchise business, remains open for business.

Kraig Johnson, owner of the store at 507 Iowa Ave., said Sears Hometown is a separate entity from Sears Holdings, which primarily features full-line mall retail outlets and some auto centers. Sears Hometown, Johnson stressed, spun off from Sears Holdings in October of 2012, and is a completely separate company.

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Contact Jeff Hutton at 641-753-6611 or jhutton@timesrepublican.com