Kmart (69) A Kmart store in Richmond, Virginia. Business Insider/Hayley Peterson
Kmart is closing 64 stores across 28 states.
Sears Holdings, which owns Sears and Kmart, informed Kmart employees of the closures on Friday, according to several local news reports and multiple employees who spoke with Business Insider.
The stores that are closing will begin liquidation sales on September 22 and close by mid-December, employees said.
Sears did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
Separately on Friday, Seritage Growth Properties, a real-estate investment trust that owns 235 Sears and Kmart stores, revealed in a filing that Sears had decided to terminate leases on 17 stores, meaning it would close those stores.
According to RBC Capital Markets analysts, all 17 closures are Kmart stores and they will close by January.
The new wave of closures follows Sears' decision to shut down nearly 80 stores — most of which were Kmart stores — in July. Moody's analysts warned last week that Kmart doesn't have enough cash or access to cash to stay in business. Kmart has about 870 stores today, down from about 1,300 in 2012.