Posted on 08/23/2018 11:58:09 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
The company said this week it is shuttering 46 more stores in November. The locations are spread across the United States (See a full list below.)
"We continue to evaluate our network of stores, which is a critical component to our integrated retail transformation, and will make further adjustments as needed," the company said in a statement.
Liquidation sales at the 33 Sears stores and 13 Kmarts are expected to begin next week, according to Sears. The company also said that eligible workers will receive severance and be able to apply for openings at other nearby stores.
Sears said in January it was planning to shut more than 100 stores. It then announced another round of roughly 100 store closures in May. Sears was operating 894 stores as of May 5, which is the latest available total provided by the company.
With CEO Eddie Lampert at the helm, Sears has been trimming its real estate footprint as sales dwindle at its stores and shoppers increasingly opt to ring up purchases online or outside of shopping malls. Sears is currently evaluating a bid from Lampert's hedge fund, ESL Investments, to buy the Kenmore appliance brand from Sears for $400 million. The company had previously sold its Craftsman tool brand.
Sears is still testing new concepts, like stand-alone mattress stores and combined Sears and Kmart locations, but retail analysts say it will be hard for the company to bounce back from its dire situation.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
I used to buy ammo in the one on Sweetwater road in Spring Valley Ca.
They had this great canned LB of Bacon too that was 99c the Lb and required no refrigeration.
They sold guns as well
Sears has sold off most if not all of its brands. It has nothing but real estate left and the CEO transferred that to his own company.
I remember when my local paper added a "technology" column (mid-'80s) and some of the articles that it featured as the internet took shape. Seems like there were articles about the early web browsers, the increasing popularity of the "World Wide Web", and discussion of the first online purchases all within a year or so (1993-94?)
One key point - repeated in several articles by the tech columnist - was the answer to the question: "Who shops online?" At that time, the internet was seen as the domain of younger, single men. More than that, there seemed to be bit of mockery present... Star Trek fandom references, comments about the back offices of the university Computer Science lab, and so on. I recall reading a few testy letters to the editor that were reactions to that stuff.
I guess Sears, if they studied the potential at all, concluded that online activity was a niche market that they could safely ignore. Oops.
Worked in their service department for 10 years in the late’80s-early ‘90s. It was a great job being on the road all day, but you could see the writing as they tried to manage every little aspect with bare minimum crew. “Lean and mean” as the new district manager said. Sounded ok until we found out that “lean” meant the unemployment line for us young guys..
Guess those were the days, when they serviced and repaired what they sold.
WLS is still around.
Sears in my area closed several years ago. Can’t remember the last time I spent any money in a Sears store.
I do miss KMart though. They had cheap, well-made basic clothes in Big & Tall sizes.
yes WLS is still around (but no longer owned by Sears, is is now part of the mega-Cumulus Media Corporation)
it used to be Sear’s radio outlet, heard throughout the midwest and at nights almost everywhere else, too:
http://www.wlshistory.com/WLS20/
Bahh to Cumulus! but they beat the others.
I swear on good propagation nights I can get WLS in Tx
i am confident you can get WLS in Tx.
890khz
It’s a flame thrower, always has been. 500K watts
50,000 watts yes. And clear channel. With good radio you can often listen to them on the coasts
I am sure I have heard them here if no one is stepping on the signal..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MW_DX#MW_DX_in_North_America
Yuppers.
Thanks. Nice.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Xqzp8NvDI
Easy to judge in hindsight, but I remember I was looking for a Craftsman tool back in the 90s.
What stuck with me was that the local store didn’t have it and when I went online, I realized that that the web site was worse than useless for either finding inventory in other stores or even basic information on store hours.
About that same time, I stopped being a loyal Sears customer and began looking elsewhere.
The 1897 Sears Catalog contained the advice, "If you don't find it in the index, look very carefully through the entire catalogue."†
Index? Catalogue?
Who needs those if you have Amazon?
†The famous computer scientist Donald E. Knuth used that quote to decorate Volume 3 of his series The Art of Computer Programming: Searching and Sorting. Without a doubt, Knuth's works have helped to educate many of the more essential of Amazon's employees (i.e., the ones not in danger of being replaced by robots).
Well, I 've got hind sight back to the early 50's when the releases of the Sears catalogues were a big event, the big wish book for the entire family.
In the 1950s the 3 brick and mortar stores in Washington DC I recall weren't that big and on the edges of retail districts. That all changed with the advent of of shopping centers built for the fast growing suburban areas. At first there were the open air malls mimicking an urban street with huge parking areas. The planning was based on build to suit shells for the big anchor stores., with small retailers between at least 2 anchor stores at the far ends. Sears expansion really started in that era. By the end of the 60s early 70s the gold rush of shopping centers pretty much reached a saturation point. I worked for an arch/engin firm in NYC, that was cranking out shell structure for Macy's, Gimbels, Wanamaker, Sears, and Lord and Taylor stores. 90 days from contract to ground breaking. All the over time we could handle, function of the cost of money.
We could see that the boom was over as markets became saturated. That's when Sears should have been watching and adjusting marketing and expansion plans. By then, they were driven by shopping center sales and the catalogue end languished and shriveled. No more mass mailings of NYC telephone book size catalogues. Just smaller catalogues with fewer offerings. Why wait for delivery in pre-FEDEX times, when a short drive could acquire the goods same day.
Sears and other stores were offered reduced leases by mall developers to remain, being the linch pins of viabilty or so they thought. This was two decades plus before the computer explosion and beginnings of the internet. The oil embargo didn't help mall traffic either. That's what I saw, the transition from shopping at Sears being a family event, moms and daughters in clothes and household sections, dads and lads in tools and sporting goods, to the meh mall stores. Brand loyalty kept Sears going well past the moment when they could have altered course. Adapt or die, they and others didn't make wise choices, the gravy train was forever...
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