Great Indoors in Schaumburg among stores set to close

Hoffman Estates-based Sears Holding Corp. announced Thursday it will close four "underperforming" Great Indoors stores, including its Schaumburg location.

The 150,000-square-foot Schaumburg store employs about 113 people, and Sears spokeswoman Kimberly Freely said workers have already been notified of the Feb. 4 closure.

"We're hopeful they'll take jobs at Kmarts and Sears, as well as the (store) in Lombard," Freely said.

The Great Indoors in Lombard is to stay open at this point, and is now the only store left in the chain in Illinois. It opened in 2001, at the same time as the Schaumburg store. Sears closed its Deerfield Great Indoors store in 2005. There are now 12 remaining nationwide, Freely said.

Sears will close a total of seven stores, including two Sears Grand stores and one Sears Essentials location. The Great Indoor stores in Chino Hills, Calif.; Las Vegas; and Woodbridge, N.J., will close, as well as Sears Grand stores in American Fork, Utah, and Menomonee Falls, Wis. The Sears Essentials store in Clearwater, Fla. will also close.

The Schaumburg site at Meacham and Golf Roads once housed Kmart and Venture stores. It sells home appliances, paints and other home decor items. Sears announced the closures of three Great Indoors stores in 2003, none of them in the Chicago area.

Doug Ellsworth, the finance director for Schaumburg, said that, of course, the village hates to see any local retailer close, particularly a large one.

He said the village will strive to find a new use for the highly visible location, just west of Woodfield Shopping Center, as soon as possible.

The village imposes no property tax so relies heavily on sales tax revenues, which Ellsworth said have already dropped since last year.

"We are monitoring our sales tax revenue very closely ... and watching the business environment of Schaumburg very closely," he said, "and will do what we can, as a village, to weather the storm."