Near insolvent retailer Sears Holdings reported another quarterly loss, with same store sales plunging in Q2 more than expected as the company offered more margin-crushing discounts amid an industry that is, in the words of Dick’s CEO, in “panic mode“. The company blamed a “retail environment that remained challenging, with continued softness in store traffic and elevated price competition.”

For Q2, Eddie Lampert’s company reported a net loss of $251 million, or $2.34 per share from $395 million or $3.70 per share, a year earlier. The adjusted loss was $1.16 a share, beating expectations loss of $2.48 per share, while revenue tumbled from $5.66 billion to $4.37 billion Y/Y primarily due to store closures, modestly beating expectations of $4.21 billion.

As part of its restructuring effort and attempt to return to profitability, Sears has been trimming its real estate portfolio, cutting costs and seeking additional liquidity. The retailer announced that it will be closing an additional 28 Kmart stores this year, in addition to the 180 Sears and Kmart stores that have already been shuttered this year, and the 150 stores that are slated to be closed by the end of the third quarter.

And while the company’s cost-cutting is a welcome, if long overdue, change a bigger problem for Kmart is the collapse in store traffic, as same-store sales plunged 11.5%, worse than the expected 7.1 percent decline.

Trying to put a favorable spin on another lousy quarter, CEO Eddie Lampert said that “we are making progress on the strategic priorities we outlined earlier this year and remain focused on returning our Company to profitability… While the third quarter has historically been our most difficult quarter over the past several years, we are working towards making meaningful improvement in our performance this year as a result of the restructuring actions we have put in place.”

As noted above, Sears same-store sales fell 11.5%, including a decline of 9.4% for Kmart stores, and a drop of -13.2% at Sears stores. Spinning the worse than expected drop in traffic, Sears said that July was the best quarter for the company in terms of comparable sales, “as the restructuring program actions, including the closing of unprofitable stores, have begun to take effect.”