Posted on 10/24/2017 8:48:03 AM PDT by Leaning Right
The struggling retailer says it will stop selling Whirlpool's washing machines, refrigerators and other appliances. Sears will also stop offering Maytag, KitchenAid and Jenn-Air products, all of which are part of Whirlpool.
Sears will sell its existing inventory of Whirlpool products but not order more. Whirlpool will keep making some products sold under Sears' Kenmore brand.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
In 2013, Sears Holdings had sales/revenue of $39.85B.
In 2017, that number is $22.14B
($900 million of that, selling off Craftsman)
There isn't much more for Whirlpool to lose from Sears.
In comparison, though Best Buy has been dropping in sales, 2017 was $39.4B, almost the same that Sears had 4 years ago.
The last few years, while appliance sales have been increasing, Sears and Kmart appliance sales have been dropping by double digits each year.
Sears, as little as 5 years ago, was the number 1 appliance retailer. Now number 3. Surpaced by Lowes and Home Depot.
Good point...I used to love the Sears catalog ordering, especially when we lived in the boonies. With the right kind of forward thinking they could have been first in the mail order business forever. I, too, hate to see a dying Sears.
Anecdote: I worked at Sears one Christmas loading trucks at a catalogue center. Work from 4 until the trucks were finished. We loaded tons of goods every single day. The amount was unbelievable.
I was stunned when they decided to end catalogue sales. That catalogue WAS Sears. All the rest was gravy.
To walk away from what you do and strike off for something else was folly...its taken many years, but the model they pursued have failed.
Sears stores are dumpy frumpy faded and old. They are like JC Penney.
Really sad. I so remember the Christmas Book...I recall some stat that at one time some 90% of people owed money to Sears. Now, I doubt 90% will even notice when they are gone.
Thats a helluva note.
I bought a top of their line Washer and dryer 22 years ago and they are still working. The only problems I’ve had were 2 replacements of the heating element in the dryer.
IIRC, Kenmore is made by Whirlpool.
Most likely they have started demanding to be paid up front rather than 30 or 60 day net. I don't think I would deliver to Sears until after the check has cleared.
Exactly. Sears didn't just have their catalog. They had the entire infrastructure set up from warehouses, to taking customer orders, to shipping. It would have been far easier for Sears to shift to an Internet based business than it was for Amazon to start one from scratch.
OTOH, I'm not one to talk. I remember about 7 years ago when a failing computer company came out with a new tablet computer that sounded like a women's sanitary product. I was sure it would fail. You may have heard of it. The iPad.
Craftsman broken tool replacement policy was the greatest.
I went through $300 worth of metal tape measures over 20 years on one $15 purchase.
“the packaging was just pathetic. It was like Bob in Shipping yelled “Hey, Fred, ya got a box I can use to ship this guy these hoses?” I think they went to the grocery store next door, grabbed a flattened canned foods box and taped it back together. Then “Hey, Fred...got some old newspaper I can use to stuff around these hoses?””
I used to live a block from a regional Sears distribution center that had a retail seconds store attached. That type packaging was status quo for most of the goods on the shelves.
So YOU are the reason Sears is going under!
Seriously though, I worked at a local Sears selling hardware in the late 1970s. Most of the time when someone would bring in a broken Craftsman tool for replacement they would buy something else while they were there. Even if they did not, you knew they would come back whenever they needed a tool.
The lifetime warranty (along with quality made products) is what sold most of Sears Craftsman tools and made a very loyal customer base. It took years of concerted effort to piss that all away.
“Mom bought them with trading stamps”
best part of story! I bet ya’ll had to send in a box of stamp books the size of two 24-packs of beer to get something THAT good! It’s a wonder your family didn’t get glue poisoning! I think we only ever managed a badminton set.
I suspect Whirlpool will not give them product to sell without payent terms Sears cannot make. They are done. Sears Canada announced they were closing instead of restructuring last month.
I on the other hand am glad to see them go. Bought a filter for the refrigerator 6 months ago and realized I could have bought 6 for the price of 1 had I looked online. I knew then it was the last thing I would ever buy there. The store was empty except for a few sales people standing around.
Thanks for that bit of info and the possible reason it may not have much real impact on Whirlpool. I can remember choosing to “fire” potential customers based on how we priced their project and the hassle factor of dealing with them. Today, I counsel clients about how to evaluate customers for revenue and profit so they don’t take business that has no real return for them.
Mostly my concern about the Tulsa plant is the economic development element for the larger community.
Just bought a New Whirlpool washer at Lowes, made in America, and parts are available.....I believe in Iowa....
The auto repair scandal in the late 80s certainly didn’t help.
In my last comment, i forgot to say our last Whirlpool washer lasted us over 23 yrs....that is an American Quality built product...
Got an excellent canister vacuum from there years ago. Went by to pick it up and it was like a ghost town. Looked like a 2 man operation, Manager and Gopher.
More likely is that Whirlpool told Sears they could not extend them credit anymore and Sears said we can not pay cash upfront. The company I work for used to make a premium product line sold under a Sears label and that is what happened.
When (not if) Sears goes bankrupt, any suppliers that extended credit and received payments in the previous 3 months can be forced by the court to return those payments. Management decided that Sears business wasn’t worth the risk of having a credit arrangement and a bunch of finished leftovers with labels removed were sold to employees at scrap value. Whirlpool has it easier because the merchandise has their own branding and they can just sell it through other channels. The question who makes the Kenmore labeled stuff and how do they respond.
Well I know for a fact there was a huge production facility in the Moreno Valley,Ca., as far as I know it’s still active.
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