A “store closing” banner hangs on a Michigan Sears store in November 2018. Sears, Macy’s other chains announced they shuttered Massachusetts stores totaling more than 1 million square feet of retail space in 2018.

More Massachusetts retail plazas and malls will be losing longtime anchor stores by early next year as Sears Holdings Corp. closes 96 more Kmart and Sears locations across the country.

The Kmart locations at The Shops at Billerica at 484 Boston Post Road in Billerica and a stand-alone store at 252 Main St. in Acton will be shuttered. The Sears stores at Leominster’s Mall at Whitney Field and the Auburn Mall in Auburn will close.

“Since purchasing substantially all the assets of Sears Holdings Corp. in February 2019, Transformco has faced a difficult retail environment and other challenges,” the company said in a statement. “We have been working hard to position Transformco for success by focusing on our competitive strengths and pruning operations that have struggled due to increased competition and other factors. To support these initiatives, our owners (along with a third-party investor) have recently provided the company approximately $250 million in new capital. As part of this process, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to streamline our operations.”

Going-out-of-business sales at these stores are expected to begin on Dec. 2.

Statewide, owners of retail real estate have been turning to alternative uses as traditional anchor stores close. The owners of Springfield’s Eastfield Mall are proposing to lease the mall’s former Macy’s anchor space to a marijuana cultivation, distribution and sale facility. In Somerville, Federated Realty recently bought out Kmart’s lease on a 6-acre anchor parcel the Assembly Marketplace, and has hinted at redeveloping the plot in the coming years.