Westwood Kmart closure to cost 27 people their jobs
The closure of New Jersey’s last Kmart, based in Westwood, will cost 27 people their jobs once the store shutters for good this fall.
That’s according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the state Department of Labor. The layoffs go into effect Oct. 29, according to the notice.
The chain’s Westwood location, at 700 Broadway, will close in September or October and has signs in the windows noting that “everything must go.”
NorthJersey.com was the first to report that Kmart was closing its last New Jersey location.
A location in Middlesex County closed last year, leaving the Bergen County store as the lone survivor in a chain that at one time had more than 2,000 locations around the country.
In 2019, stores in Wayne, Trenton, Wall and Somers Point closed. Kearny and Belleville stores followed suit in 2021.
Sears Holdings, the owner of Kmart and Sears, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2018. It was spared liquidation by being sold to investor and CEO Eddie Lampert, who created the company Transformco to handle the business in 2019.
Transformco did not immediately return requests for comment for this story.
There are just two Kmarts left in the U.S; Kmart Miami and Kmart Bridgehampton on Long Island.
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: munozd@northjersey.com; Twitter:@danielmunoz100
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Westwood Kmart closure to mean 27 layoffs this October
