Sears says it's turning business around - but its stores tell a different story

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Business Insider/Hayley Peterson

A Sears store in Glen Allen, Virginia, reveals an apparent inventory shortage.

Sears says it's in the process of a transformation that will lead the company back to profitability after years of declining sales.

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But conditions inside some of Sears' stores tell a different story.

Several employees have told Business Insider that they are seeing signs of decay in their stores, which have included a rat problem, collapsing ceilings, empty shelves, and a lack of working toilets, as Business Insider reported last week.

In response, Sears said many of the problems that the employees described have since been resolved.

We visited a Sears store in Glen Allen, Virginia and found some issues similar to what employees had described, including many empty shelves, broken merchandise displays, torn and stained carpet, evidence of water damage, active ceiling leaks, and curtains hanging from the ceiling that hid empty parts of the store.

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Here's what we saw.