Posted on 09/14/2016 2:25:22 PM PDT by PROCON
Moody's analysts say Sears and Kmart don't have enough money — or access to money — to stay in business.
In a note published Wednesday, the analysts downgraded Sears' liquidity rating, saying the company is bleeding cash and will have to continue to rely on outside funding or the sale of assets, such as real estate, to sustain operations.
"We recognize the risks associated with relying on these sources and continued shareholder support to finance its negative operating cash flow which is estimated by Moody's to be approximately $1.5 billion this year," the analysts wrote.
Kmart in particular is at risk of shutting down, according to Moody's.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
In 1993 in a letter home from my military base in Germany, I predicted to my mother that Sears would fail within 10 years. Why? Because they shut down the mail order catalog side of the business.
My mom, who worked for Sears in the early 1960s and again briefly in the early ‘70’s, pooh-poohed the idea. Sears was like GM, or GE, and could never fail absent the downfall of all civilization.
I was off by a few years, looks like.
Yes, they had shuttered the catalog business because profits were declining. The age of the big store was upon us. It took the internet to bring it back. Even so, I thought it a bad move. I was planning to move into off-post quarters at my next assignment, and wanted to pre-order necessary household goods to be sitting in my parents’ home, still conveniently in boxes, to be loaded into the car I planned to buy and drive to wherever it was (turned out to be Fort Hood, TX, where I did set up though I had to do a LOT of shopping in my first week!).
As for K-mart...well, what can I say? I thought they were done for in 1999. When I bought a bicycle from one in 2004, in a ridiculous sale that among other items put the bike out for under $30, the store itself looked like a sad shadow of its former self. Now in 2016, it’s no better.
Middle tier providers like Sears get killed in the crossfire, because their cheapest products aren't cheap enough to compete, and the highest quality products aren't high enough quality to compete.
Glad to hear they charge it now. I’m a big believer in the superiority of consumption taxes.
In the early days they didn’t. By the time they were forced to charge they were well established. Would have been a very risky move to challenge them and Ebay.
That was the real downfall for Sears: slick catalog paper.
Like John Wayne, it won’t take **** off anyone.
I remember my sister and I pouring over the big Christmas catalogue every year, circling all the things we wanted for Christmas. And our Sears had a candy counter, and my parents would get us each 1/4 lb. of candy stars after shopping. Ah, the good old days.
I live in a Sears home, standing strong for 96 years. The Sunbeam (Model No. 3194); ($2,425 to $2,707).
Amazon charges sales tax.
We been doing the same. Our sears is like that as well......
Other way around. K-Mart bought Sears, after selling off the real estate that it could. (That's how they ended up with so many 'urban' locations - not as much demand for those properties.) They then changed the name of the parent company to Sears Holdings.
At the time, a lot of us thought that they would repeat the real estate sell off with the available Sears properties, but they ended up trying to run Sears and what was left of K-Mart as a retail business.
Sears brought ‘online’ to the masses with the Prodigy service, and they were an early leader in the credit card game with the Discover card.
Spot on.
“Had Sears jumped into online sales early they could be sitting where Amazon is now.”
sears is so technologically backwards, I don’t think they’ve even upgraded their point-of-sales systems since the ‘90s.
There are a quite a few around, but nowhere near what they were before. I don't think the cellphone thing worked too well.
Go here: RS link
Put in your zip code, then for Distance, "no limit", and for Results "100". Then hit search. You'll get the nearest 100 stores.
“Didn’t Sears start up the Prodigy online service?”
they also started up allstate insurance and the discover credit card.
“It’s no surprise they didn’t run with the digital camera, as that technology was a knife to the heart of their mammoth silver-based photofinishing operations.”
Photo-finishing went the way of the Do-Do bird anyway, AND Kodak let others take the digital camera profits TOO!
Kmart bought Sears not the other way.
LOL, too much effort for some place I have no desire to even know where they are located. I’ll take your word. 8>)
Obamanomics.
Sam Walton started with Ben Franklin franchised stores. The story I recall is they wouldn’t give him a franchise for Rogers, Arkansas, because it was too close to an existing store. So he opened it as a Wal-Mart. (He already had a Walton’s 5 and dime in Bentonville.)
How many of their stores do they actually own?
Maybe it is 731, and they rent the rest...I’m too lazy to read the story. But my sense of it is that they own very few stores....most commercial property is rented.
Although....maybe they could strike a deal with another store to take over their leases. The Sears are in shopping malls; the K-Marts are in plazas. Both are anchor stores....
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