Posted on 01/09/2014 2:09:59 PM PST by Hojczyk
Sears, once America's golden retailer, is a company in crisis.
The company has shuttered hundreds of stores in recent years. The embattled company has been selling some its most profitable stores to raise money.
And now, shares are tumbling after Sears lowered guidance for the quarter and announced that comparable sales in the fourth quarter have slid more than 7%.
Brian Sozzi, chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, took poignant photos inside of New Jersey and New York Sears locations in October.
"To understand why Sears is in a 'sell stores mode' one must look no further than the stores themselves, where the truth is to be found," Sozzi writes.
His photos show the sad reality of what Sears is today.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
That’s good to know. I was wondering if we had made a mistake by buying a Whirlpool.
“Our local K-Mart is a zombie store. You go in there, and no employees OR customers. I have no idea how they even pay the lease and utilities, let alone make a profit.”
Ours started to empty out when we got a Wal-Mart; there are still some Hispanics that shop there, but the parking lot is empty compared to 10 years ago. I was in one nearby last year and there was nobody working in electronics; after 4 or 5 of us gathered there (over fifteen minutes) a nearby clerk behind a jewelry counter called someone to help us. Bare skeleton crew...
When the guy told me it would be 5 days to fix out dryer..for the second time...after working for one day...
I was apoplectic...
He did manage to bump me up a day claiming because I was a long term customer...
I can't repeat what I told the guy...
Needless to say I have a garage full of Craftsman and Kenmore stuff....
I will never spend a thin dime in Sears again...
I suspect it is the modern business degreed type. Got paper but no smarts.
Maybe they need to downsize and try to survive with just Appliance / Tool Stores. Craftsman still has a decent reputation.
LOL !
Kenmore was always a store brand built by someone else. There was never a “kenmore” factory.
“Our local K-Mart is a zombie store.”
Good! After their tasteless Christmas ad I hope they go belly-up.
.
I was told their appliances, while they may have the “Kenmore” label on them, are actually made by K-Mart and are a pile of C—P. Don’t know now, because Sears went out of business in our area and shut down. Certainly, we were shocked a couple of years ago when we looked to replace our drier and saw how cheap-looking the Sears Kenmore appliances were. But they weren’t cheap in price.
Forced ‘insurance” to travel. Forced Extortion “Insurance” for Extortion-Care. What do you see 90% of the time advertised? “Insurance” and McDonalds..
getting money not earning it.
All else not “Exempt”
My husband’s family (including his siblings) bought all of their appliances at Sears. When my parents first married, they bought some of their furniture at Montgomery Ward. They hated it after that, and never bought anything there again. From then on, their store was Sears.
Two years ago I bought a Kenmore top loader washer with agitator and a front loading Kenmore high capacity dryer from a local Sears. These replaced older Kenmores that had done their duty and had performed well.
The washer and dryer seem like pretty high quality appliances, at least in their first two years. And the price was reasonable.
Craftsman hand tools, one of the best, made in USA.
Craftsman power tools, check country of origin, most are made in China. Average longevity and performance.
Sears brand tools, used to be quality, I still have a pair of electricians pliers I bought in the ‘80s that were made in Taiwan. Now, most, if not all are junk...China.
Returning broken Craftsman ratchet and given a repair kit, fail.
I left the broken ratchet on the counter, took a ratchet off the shelf and told the manager to make things right. He did.
But that is counterintuitive to their sales slogan...lifetime guarantee, free replacement.
These pics look like they were taken right after a Black Friday showdown...I have never been into a Sears that looked like that...ours is normally quite neat and tidy.
It will Vanish like Montgomery Ward Stores did.
I worked in the photo department. It was staffed by guys who turned out to be professional photographers for the past thirty years. Tell me of a department store today that has real-life experts at their counters.
The way ours is routed, I do at least once a month, when I clean the lint filter.
Big time fire hazard...
Our local Kmart has trouble attracting people, because it is surrounded by zombies—homeless people who hang out in and around the parking lot and beg money from folks, or defecate and urinate all over the place. So a lot of people won’t go there.
“The embattled company has been selling some its most profitable stores to raise money.”
Here’s your problem - back assward thinking.
You don’t sell the profitable stores, you sell off the dogs and put *more* money where you already have a winner.
Selling your winners to back your losers is just dumb.
I call that the Pan Am syndrome; that’s exactly how they went down the tubes.
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