After a long decline, the last Kmart in Mass. is closing

A liquidation firm is turning the lights out at the dying chain’s Hyannis store.

A shopper enters a now-closed Kmart store in Braintree in 2018.Debee Tlumacki

Kmart was in dire straits before the pandemic hit, and now its last remaining store in Massachusetts will soon close its doors.

The Hyannis store, located on Route 132, is listed on a website run by SB360 Capital Partners, a firm that manages retail liquidations, along with 32 other Kmart and Sears stores (including one in Attleboro). According to the Kmart website, the store in Hyannis is the only one left in Massachusetts.

Forbes reported that the 59-year-old chain, which not that long ago had more than 2,100 stores nationwide, was down to 34 by last May.

Kmart first filed for bankruptcy protection in 2002, as it faced steep competition from retailers such as Walmart and Target. Investor Eddie Lampert helped Kmart emerge from bankruptcy, and he led its merger with department store chain Sears two years later.

The parent company of Sears and Kmart filed for bankruptcy in 2018, but Lampert launched a holding company called Transformco a year later and acquired about 400 Sears and Kmart stores for $5.2 billion.

Despite the acquisition and corporate restructuring, several stores have since gone out of business. Kmart announced in 2019 the closing of stores in Somerville, Brockton, and Webster. And on top of the nationwide closures of 33 Sears and Kmart stores, Transformco recently sold five Kmart store leases to Target.

Transformco could not immediately be reached for comment.