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Sears, based in Chicago for more than a century and now facing mounting troubles, is closing its last store in the city. In a symbolic milestone, Sears will soon close its last store in Chicago — the city the iconic retailer has called home or been closely connected to for 120 years. The Sears store, at 4730 W. Irving Park Road, will go out of business in mid-July with the liquidation sale of its merchandise starting on April 27. The store was one of 265 properties sold to Seritage Growth Properties in a 2015 sale-leaseback deal. On Nov. 3, 2017, it was announced a total of 63 K-Mart and Sears stores have been targeted for closure to cut costs. Traffic passes by a Sears department store in Brooklyn's Flatbush, in New York. Sears, once the monolith of American retail, in March 2017 announced that there is "substantial doubt" that it will be able to keep its doors open. Bebeto Matthews, AP (USA Today) Employees at the store at Six Corners, on the edge of the Portage Park neighborhood, were told of the closure Thursday morning, spokesman Howard Riefs said in an email. The store, at the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue, Cicero Avenue, and Irving Park Road, will close in mid-July after a liquidation sale set to begin April 27. The Sears Auto Center will close in mid-May. The storefront of a Sears, Roebuck and Co. store is seen in El Paso, Texas, circa 1940. (ABC News) Sears has closed hundreds of stores since the start of 2017 amid sluggish sales and the shifting tastes of shoppers who increasingly prefer to buy online or from rival retailers like Walmart and Best Buy. Shoppers walk into Sears in Peabody, Mass., on May 17, 2012. Elise Amendola, AP (USA Today) “For more than 120 years, Sears has called Illinois home and that is not changing,” Riefs said. “Although we are disappointed by this last store closure in Chicago, by no means does this change our commitment to our customers and presence to Chicago’s residents.” When World War II began in 1941, Sears had more than 600 stores. A customer receives a cosmetic consultation in Sears Roebuck department store in Caracas, Venezuela, circa 1955. (ABC News) Hoffman Estates-based Sears Holdings Corp. still has about 150 employees at its Loop office. The company declined to say how many employees work at the Six Corners store, which opened in 1938. Sears’ Six Corners employees will be given severance pay and the opportunity to apply for open positions at Sears or Kmart, the company said. Sears was the nation’s largest retailer by revenue until the late 1980s, when Walmart surpassed it. Around that time, the annual Sears “wish book” was a must-read for children in the months before Christmas. 1962 Sears Wishbook (Pinterest) The Sears Tower was opened in 1973 and is 1,730 feet tall, including its antenna. It was originally named for retailer Sears, Roebuck & Co., which moved its headquarters to Hoffman Estates, Ill. in 1992. The Tower was renamed in 2009 to Willis Tower after the insurance broker Willis Group Holdings leased the naming rights. However, many locals still refer to the landmark skyscraper as the Sears Tower. CNN Money The shuttering of the last Sears in Chicago is especially poignant. The city has been tied to the retailer's identity since it first moved its headquarters there from Minnesota in 1887 and later put its stamp on the city's skyline with the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the world when it became Sears' corporate base in 1973. "Although we are disappointed by this last store closure in Chicago, by no means does this change our commitment to our customers and presence to Chicago’s residents,'' the company said in a statement. An advertisement for ladies corsets and underskirts by Sears, Roebuck & Co., circa 1897. (ABC News) Sears, which also owns Kmart, has struggled financially in recent years, laying off scores of employees, borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars and dealing with credit downgrades. But in its most recent earnings period, the company reported a profit thanks to a boost by the new federal tax law. The company said its Sears stores in the U.S. were "negatively impacted by consumer electronics," amid fierce online and brick-and-mortar competition from retailers like Amazon.com and Best Buy. https://youtu.be/jG8NxIKu1Us The retailer says it will continue to streamline operations and promote its Shop Your Way loyalty membership program, among other moves, to help it regain its relevance and footing. Sears declined to comment on the store closures and auctions. Buyers have until May 1 to signal interest in the properties for sale. Later that month, interested buyers will be able to bid on them in real time in an online auction, according to Real Insight Marketplace. The following Sears stores are for sale in online auctions: Castleton Square Mall, Indianapolis, Indiana Southlake Mall, Merrillville, Indiana University Park Mall, Mishawaka, Indiana Twelve Oaks Mall, Novi, Michigan 330 Siemers Dr., Cape Girardeau, Missouri South County Center, Mehlville, Missouri Mid Rivers Mall, Cottleville, Missouri Battlefield Mall, Springfield, Missouri Great Northern Mall, North Olmsted, Ohio Richland Mall, Mansfield, Ohio SouthPark Mall, Strongsville, Ohio Parkdale Mall, Beaumont, Texas Deerbrook Mall, Humble, Texas San Jacinto Mall, Baytown, Texas Rolling Oaks Mall, San Antonio, Texas Plaza Paseo Mall, Pasadena, Texas Is your Sears location on this list? (Sources: Chicago Tribune and USA Today and ABC News and Business Insider)