The ONLY thing about “Sears” that is worth a CRAP is “Craftsman Tools” other than that SEARS SUX!
It’s really too bad.
Sears is not a bad store.
At least, the ones in the Twin Cities never struck me as bad. I could find most of what I was looking for there.
From Drudge
HOLIDAY SHOPPING: BIG CHAIN STORES ON DEATH WATCH...
Retailers with serious problems have low prospects for survival... Developing...
SEARS to accelerate closings, shutter 235 stores…
Catering services for baby showers was a big flop.
Is there a list of closings?...............
bring back the inexpensive, reliable store-brand guns you used to sell maybe it help.
Gotta figure out by next summer where to get humidifier pads and juice. Pretty much the only thing I buy at Sears.
Could ANYONE here tell me JUST WHAT THE HELL happened to Sears? They used to be a “Not Bad” outfit.
ACE sells Craftsman tools. When I saw that I knew the end was coming.
I’ve worked at the Sears HQ being that they are one of our clients and their biggest problem is like so many old guard retailers they have failed to modernize their stores effectively. Another old guard customer of ours Macy’s has successfully modernized and kept their stores up and are not having the problems that Sears is. Sears Holdings also owns Kmart which is another study in circa 1985 retailer time machines. The worst part is that Sears has a great loyalty program and a lot going for it but there is this insane refusal by management to invest in upgrading the stores which is the #1 problem IMHO. Its run by an ex Hedge Fund manager which explains a lot of its problems.
About 10 years ago Kmart bought Sears. Appeared to be on the theory that combining two struggling retail firms would somehow produce a winner.
Very odd reasoning.
Lands end is still doing well I think
I have a few standard clothing items I wear all the time that come from Lands End
I made a mistake Lampert still is a hedgefund manager.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/12/04/sears-3q-loss-widens-as-retailer-reshapes-itself/19887815/
I remember the great old days when Sears sold everything from appliances, to small motorbikes, to guns, to tools. Mostly everything they sold was well-made stuff.. the Kenmore washers and dryers were the best.
Wait do they have Ellen as their spokesperson to? That’s the sole reason why JCP is also shuttering stores and losing money right? I know because I read that here on FR...
Sears will be acquired by Chinese investors.
The management went counter-culture a long time ago. Everyone’s going to Walmart.
I grew up in a small, rural village. The Sears (and Eaton’s — Canadians know what I mean) catalogues were the closest I ever got to window-shopping in a mall. They offered a much wider range of products than we could get locally, at reasonable prices. My siblings and I would spend hours pouring over the Christmas “wish books”, circling the toys we wanted Santa to bring. In elementary school, we were even taught how to write a letter to Sears, to order some items we wanted.
Then the Internet happened, and these venerable old catalogue stores were among the last to get on board. I recall when Amazon was starting out — I kept wondering: “when’s Sears going to make its move?”; surely, they’ll use their century’s worth of experience to demolish that upstart. When it finally arrived late to the party, and still couldn’t compete with Amazon, I knew it was toast. It was just a matter of time.
The rise of internet sales such as Amazon and Ebay and many more, has been a big factor. (Sears does internet sales, though, so that’s partly compensatory)
The biggest problem is the mix of merchandise.
It is almost entirely middle-of-the-line stuff.
That was just fine in the 1950’s, 1960’s...etc.
But with today’s economy... NOT!
There is a big (and regrettably growing) market for low priced stuff (since we have more people out of work than anytime in USA history!)
There is a big market, also, in high-end or luxury merchandise (those fewer number of people who do have good incomes still..... will and do spend much of same...)
Inbetween, you have less and less people... and many of them are hanging on for dear life, scared sh*tless they will soon wind up in the sky=high scrapheap of the unemployed (so they tend to hang onto their $ and not spend it much)
AND
Just shifting the market position upscale or downscale will not be easy for Sears. Sears did try to sell mink coats (nice enough merchandise but it feels really odd to walk into a Sears store and see a rack of $3000 fur coats inbewteen the $19 blouses and $12 bras)
Put simply, people with lots of $$$ don’t immediately jump at the opportunity to shop for expensive luxury goods in a Sears store (or, even be seen shopping there — that’s a big part of selling to the rich, too, successfully matching your store and its goods with the rich customers’ self-images and egos).
And going downscale may prove difficult for Sears, too, since many of its stores are in high-rent malls... and there’s a lot of operating overhead to cover.
And will Sears be able to maintain its commendable “no questions asked” Customer Service return/refund policy, if it fills its stores with tons of cheapo merchandise (quality control problems abound when you go downsacle, as makes sense of course)
Anyway, Sears is a classic case of being “caught in the middle” and Obama’s Great Recession ain’t helping the middle, not at all!
I know the Sears “play” by Lampert was expecting big things from their real estate portfolio, but this deal looks like it’s on a glide path to auger in...