Kmart pulls the plug on its Halawa store

Another one bites the dust.

Kmart is closing its Ha­lawa store in mid-March as part of a nationwide strategy to unload unprofitable locations.

The company notified employees Tuesday of its decision to close the store near the Aloha Stadium at 4561 Salt Lake Blvd. and begin liquidation sales on Jan. 6.

“We can confirm that we are making the difficult, but necessary decision to close the Kmart store in Honolulu,” said Howard Riefs, a spokesman for Kmart’s parent company Sears Holdings Corp., in an email. “We have been strategically and aggressively evaluating our store space and productivity and have accelerated the closing of unprofitable stores as previously announced.”

He didn’t disclose the number of workers at the Halawa location, but said eligible employees will receive severance and can apply for open positions at Sears or Kmart stores on Oahu. (Sears owns Kmart.)

Kmart is the go-to store for Dawn Sheldon, who was shopping Wednesday with her husband, Dana Kalima.

“I love Kmart, the prices are good and they have a little bit of everything,” said the Salt Lake resident, who said she shops there about two to three times a week. “I don’t have to go to any other store and the selection is good and when they have the sales, it’s really good. They got housewares, hardware, clothing, food, children’s department, decorations, I mean everything. I don’t know where we’re going if they close, honestly. Target (nearby) is expensive.”

Nuuanu resident Elisa Mikko, who worked 35 years at Kmart both locally and on the mainland, went to the Halawa location Wednesday to visit a former co-worker and friend.

“It’s sad. There’s some longtime (employees),” said Mikko, who worked at the Nimitz Highway location for 23 years before it closed earlier this year. “We thought (the Nimitz store) would never close because we owned the building. That was sad and really shocking. I was going to work for Kmart three more years. (Employees) all knew that eventually they were all going to close down.”

The company closed its Waikele Center location earlier this month, following the March shutdown of the Kmart store on Nimitz Highway in Iwilei, which affected more than 140 workers. That store had operated at its Nimitz Highway location since 1992.

The closing will leave Kmart with one store on Oahu, in Kapolei, and one store each on Maui, Kauai and the Hawaii island.

Business Insider reported that 30 Sears and Kmart locations will shut down over the next few months, bringing the total number of closings to more than 200 in the past year and leaving the retailer with fewer than 1,500 stores compared with more than 3,500 stores five years ago.

Sears’ revenue dropped 12.5 percent to $5 billion with losses totaling $748 million in the most recent quarter, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Kmart’s revenue decreased 16 percent to $1.9 billion with operating losses totaling $262 million, more than double the $127 million loss in the year-earlier quarter.

“It is sad, it’s been here long time,” said Aiea resident Rhonda Timbal, 45, who said she shops at the store at least a couple times a month. “This is always one of the places where everybody comes, stops by to buy pupus, go football game and that kind stuff.”