WESTLAND, Mich. – Michigan’s last Sears store is set to close soon.
Read: Sears in Westland, the retailer’s last Michigan store, is closing
The department store chain first came to Michigan in 1941. Eighty years later, the final Sears in the state sits at the Westland Mall, but not for long.
For many, Sears was a one-stop shop for everything.
“It’s said to see it go,” said Mike Skiber.
“Your clothes and your appliances, your tools, your lawn mowers, your everything -- one-stop shopping,” said Melissa Kosta. “And now, if you go to Home Depot or Lowe’s -- not to say that they’re not any good, but they don’t have the clothes there. They don’t have the shoes there. You can’t, so you have to go to sectional stores to get things.”
Skiber said it was the best place to go for tools.
“Well, they carry Craftsmen. You could do direct exchange for tools, like if anything broke or anything, a lot of tool companies you’d have to send the tool back,” Skiber said. “Sears, you could just come in and give them the broken tool and take a brand new one, so that was always extremely convenient.”
For others, it was a place filled with memories.
“My first baby, my son, I got his crib here,” recalled Delphine Kosta.
Auto Accessories USA sits next to the Sears. Owner Steve Ayoub rents the building from Sears and he’s now uncertain about the future of his business.
“The impact that it’s going to have on us is what I’m worried about as far as generating the traffic that comes through the mall,” Ayoub said.
He said he plans to stay open but sees his revenue decreasing with another major retail store at Westland Mall closing
“That’s our niche,” Ayoub said. “Come drop your car off and go to the mall, walk around, do your thing and hopefully your car be done by then. We’ll give you a call and come back and grab it.”
There’s no official date on when the Sears will close.