(AP) --
Florida will be hit the hardest by the closing of Sears and Kmart stores, losing 11, according to a preliminary list of 79 planned closures released Thursday. Ohio, Michigan and Georgia are not far behind with six store closures planned in their states. Tennessee, North Carolina and Minnesota are set to lose four stores each.
A spokeswoman for Sears Holding Corp. said each store employs between 40 and 80 people. None of the closures announced so far are in Sears' home state of Illinois. The 125-year-old retailer said on Tuesday it would close up to 120 stores to raise cash. The projected closings represent only about 3 percent of Sears Holdings' U.S. stores. Sears and Kmart merged in 2005. The company now has about 3,560 stores in the U.S. That's up from 3,500 immediately after the merger, due to the addition of more small stores.
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