Is Sears Dying a Slow Death?

Fox Business ^ | DECEMBER 9, 2016

[DesertRhino]

“Sears symbolizes America when America was great.”

That is precisely what they should capitalize on. Say they are making Sears great again, and do it. There needs to be a retailer aimed at normal America. They might be surprised at what just a few right moves and some marketing that basically gave the finger to the blue state mentality might do.

[Spktyr]

For one thing, the company management is stuck on Active/Stupid and apparently hasn’t had a clue since the early 2000s - and they’re actively resisting any changes, even needed changes. Prior thread from just a couple days back: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3501404/posts

The faster they die, the sooner someone else can buy up the remains and start over with a competent management team.

[ColdOne]

Thanks. How long have they been made in China? do you know?

[Spktyr]

Not going to happen with this loser of a management team, who won’t sell off Sears because Sears is still doing better than their other brand, K-Mart. The only hope to save Sears is bankruptcy liquidation and someone buying the remains to start again.

[SkyDancer]

So I have read.

[Spktyr]

The first ones started showing up in the 2000s and the changeover was well underway by 2012. It’s easy to tell which are which - the Chinese tools don’t have USA printed/stamped/engraved/lasered onto them anywhere whereas most of the older USA made ones do.

[bert]

-—A catalogue store should have been a natural -—

Sears bought Land’s End and effectively reentered the catalog sales business. Some how it did not fit and was sold. Meanwhile Lands end thrives while sears flounders.

The problem is certainly old men that will not let go of what was

[discostu]

For at least the last 20 years. Big companies die slow, but they’re dying alright.

[ctdonath2]

Most Sears et al stores are in malls. I have the choice of going to the department store and choosing from a mundane selection of regular price items, or going a few feet down the hall to a store specializing in those items with a much more interesting/fashionable selection at competitive prices.

I don’t go into department stores (wal-mart excluded) any more.

[Paladin2]

NOT a choice of Millennials. Plus I pretty much have bought a lifetime of tools.

[ColdOne]

Thanks...

[Paladin2]

A Harbor Freight Store is a necessity to any town I might plan to move to. They are WAY short on 18mm combination wrenches and 7mm Allen keys though. (The US auto manufacturers never got with the German 10, 13, 15, 17, 19 mm thing.)

[JoeProBono]

[Buckeye McFrog]

Sears had the Amazon of all time locked up. They did nothing with it.

Another good example....Service Merchandise. Perfectly positioned to become a leading internet retailer. IT systems best in the industry in the early 90's. They could drop-ship items to customers, transfer them to a store, hold them, anywhere throughout the chain. All they had to do was build a webfront to access it all, and you would have had Amazon.

Smart people in the company proposed this to their then-President, Raymond Zimmerman. He did not like the idea. Did not believe the internet was the future of retail. And he was of course always the smartest one in the room, because he was the boss.

So he authorized a demonstration project, which was doomed to fail, because he wanted it to, because he wanted to be proven right.

The company is long gone. Scratch any of these other failure stores and you'll probably find similar arrogance.

[Spktyr]

Nobody else did either. The Germans use odd-number-sized fasteners. Everyone else uses the Japanese standard of even-number through 14mm, then odd numbered in general from 15mm and up.

[vladimir998]

Yes, Sears is dying a slow death. . . just like Middle Class that supported it for 130 years.

[Paladin2]

I used to especially shop there for Christmas gifts. Never understood why they went down.

[T-Bird45]

I gave up on them in 1981 so it wasn’t me that did them in.

[Right Wing Assault]

That’s un-American almost.

Yes, Sears IS un-American. The only thing I bought there was tools, but they have gone non-American.

[apoxonu]

They have two lines, one made in China and the “pro” line made here.