And, while its one thing to say it sucks to be Sears, losing an anchor store is often enough to send an entire mall into an irreversible decline
and the surrounding area as well.
Im thinking the Everett Mall could be in really bad shape. It was designed as a three-armed structure with an anchor at each end. Sears was one of them; Frederick & Nelson was another original tenant and closed many years ago; its successor in that space, Mervyns California, likewise folded. Now, theres a Burlington Coat Factory in that space, which is generally an omen for a mall in deep trouble. The third arm used to be anchored by a Bon Marche, which was eventually acquired by Allied Stores and rebranded as Macys. But Macys itself has been closing stores in the Seattle area
Its not a surprise that malls have been in dire straits in recent years, but the notion that Everett (which is a distinct city at the north end of the Seattle metroplex) might lose its retail center is absolutely stunning to me. But most malls in the Seattle area had Sears as one of their anchor tenants (and several were anchored by both Sears and JCPenneys, another chain rumored to be in deep trouble). If Sears winds up folding entirely (and, worse, if Penneys follows), we could be seeing the retailpocalypse up here.