On Sunday, the Sears store at Woodfield in Schaumburg closed their doors to customers for the very last time.

Woodfield opened 50 years ago in 1971, and the Sears store was one of its biggest draws for customers, but now that location has closed, meaning the last Sears in Illinois is now gone.

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The Biggest Department Store In Illinois Is Gone, So What Happens Next?

What happens next, according to Transformco, the company that acquired both Sears and Kmart from bankruptcy, is that the Woodfield property will be "re-developed and re-invigorated" whatever that may mean.

Transformco has not posted a list of store closures since they announced in 2019 that 96 stores would shut their doors by February 2020. In 2019, the company said it would operate 182 stores after the closures, but there have been additional store closures since then.

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If I Just Have To Go To A Sears Store, How Many Are Left In The United States?

First off, I'm guessing that no one ever says that, based upon where the fortunes of Sears have fallen over the years. However, if it's Sears or nothing for you, you'll obviously have to leave Illinois to shop at one, but the number of Sears stores continues to shrink.

According to a report in USA Today, Sears and Kmart have closed more than 3,500 stores and cut about 250,000 jobs in the past 15 years. After the new closings, it appears there will be 19 Sears department stores and 15 Kmart stores remaining.

Transformco said in a statement to USA TODAY that there are more than 300 large and small format Sears and Kmart stores nationwide. The majority of those stores are Hometown Stores, "primarily operated by independent dealers or franchisees of an affiliate of Transformco."

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