Sears is closing 80 more stores as it teeters on the brink of liquidation. The iconic retailer, once the nation’s largest department store chain, set a deadline of Friday for bids for its remaining stores to avert closing down completely.

The retailer that began as a mail-order catalog in the 1880s has been in a slow death spiral, hobbled by the Great Recession and then overwhelmed by rivals both down the street and across the internet.

The 80 stores, none of which are in Maine, are due to close by March. That’s in addition to 182 stores already slated for closure, including 142 by the end of 2018 and 40 by February. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, saying at the time it would close more than 20 percent of all stores, keeping open only its 500 most profitable locations.

Correction: This story was updated at 12 p.m. Monday Dec. 31, 2018, to correct a date.


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