[blackdog]

Irony.

Sears and JC Penny destroyed the retail stores base with catalog sales last century. Right on time a hundred years later, Sears et al, are upset that Amazon is the new sears catalog business model. The only difference is their catalog is digital and fresh every second.

The internet is now the "Mall social construct", where as the mall used to be a place to visit in person, now it's Facebook and Twitter.

[Scrambler Bob]

I think I have a Sears catalog. Probably in a ‘safe place’.

It has pressed flowers in it.

[beaversmom]

I liked this post from this thread last year:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3434778/posts

To: PROCON

Sears just did not keep up with the times. It became a giant because of the Sears catalogue, but could have regained its glory days by in effect, becoming Amazon.

Instead of trying to preserve its brick and mortar stores, as such, they should have converted many of them to local mostly delivery and large item assembly warehouses, with local pickup to avoid postage and handling.

This would have meant their local inventory would only be smaller items; with the big stuff assembled on site for delivery. It would slash their costs.

They could even subcontract space to specialized businesses, somewhat like they did before, things like watch repair to product customization.

80 posted on 5/28/2016, 5:10:15 PM by yefragetuwrabrumuy (”Don’t compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative.” -Obama, 09-24-11)

[Snickering Hound]

When Sears took their appliance and hardware sales people off commission, their slide started.

[glorgau]

I was working at Sears HQ back in the 90s when Amazon first started. Talked with the people putting together the first ecommerce web site and they were stymied by internal politics at every turn.

That dinosaur Sears took a long time to die, but it’s about to roll over and sink

[Tammy8]

I didn’t really understand why Sears and JCP didn’t morph into what Amazon became. They were of the mindset for people to shop from home, you would have thought it would have been natural for them to come up with internet shopping in a big way.

[Future Snake Eater]

Right on time a hundred years later, Sears et al, are upset that Amazon is the new sears catalog business model. The only difference is their catalog is digital and fresh every second.

I read somewhere that Sears (or was it Montgomery Ward?) in the early internet days scoffed at the notion of adopting online ordering. They could've been Amazon before Amazon was ever a thing. Oh well.