Popular hardware store chain has opened a location in former Johnson County Sears

What was the last Sears in the Kansas City area is now home to Westlake Ace Hardware .

The hardware store, 6327 W. 119th St., softly opened over a month ago but will celebrate its grand opening with a ribbon cutting Thursday at 9 a.m., according to a statement from the company.

Then, Friday through Sunday, shoppers will receive 20% off “most purchases,” the company said.

Sears Home & Life — a more scaled-back version of the once-grand department store — closed last summer. It had only been open since 2019.

At one time, the company had hundreds of stores across the country. But after years of success, steadily plummeting sales and mass closures ensued. A former location at 97th Street and Metcalf Avenue in Overland Park’s old Metcalf South Shopping Center shuttered in 2017, and Sears filed for bankruptcy in 2018.

There are now just a handful of Sears locations in the U.S.: some in Idaho, California, Florida, Washington and Massachusetts.

Lenexa-based Westlake, however, continues to expand. The Overland Park spot is its 30th in the Kansas City area.

A few months ago, it opened another location in Olathe at 1185 W. Santa Fe St.