18 Depressing Photos That Show Why Sales Are Crumbling At Sears

Yahoo Finance ^ | January 9, 2014 | Ashely Lutz

[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.

[thecodont]

I think a lot of companies that used to cater to people setting up households are feeling the pinch; once people aren’t starting families and setting up “homes” (buying houses or renting apartments for a spouse and children), then sales in many things (as basic as kitchen utensils) will drop off.

In the olden days, "family items" such as mortgages, station wagons, large appliances (washer/dryer sets, refrigerators), home furnishings, and life insurance saw brisk business.

These days people will spend five dollars for a cup of gussied-up coffee or twenty for a fancy manicure or a hundred or so for the latest electronic toy.

It's all about short-term gratification.

[kearnyirish2]

“These days people will spend five dollars for a cup of gussied-up coffee or twenty for a fancy manicure or a hundred or so for the latest electronic toy.”

Even the number of people that can afford those things will continue to drop; people are buying food, gasoline, and whatever else they need to work.

[kaehurowing]

By coincidence, there was a story involving this Kmart and surrounding homeless today:

“Area residents say a major homeless problem in the Iwilei area has been getting worse, not better since the city passed a ban tents on public sidewalks.

“My neighbors were complaining they cannot walk to Kmart. They have to walk on the road and so forth,” said Roland Louie, Kalihi-Kapalama Neighborhood Board Member.

Louie says he’s seen the homeless problem grow in the area.

“Homeless is everybody’s problem,” Louie said.

So on Friday morning, city road clean up crews, along with Institute for Human Services social workers and police officers began clearing homeless out of the area.

“They took all my food. My people food. I was lucky to save my dog’s food. They took the water, so I have no water for my dogs. But I can find some water for them,” said Colette Fish, who is homeless.

“It’s extremely important that we do this because we’re finding that when we go out every week, we’re picking up about three tons of opala off of our sidewalks,” Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said.

But many people feel the homeless will just come right back.

“One or two days they’ll come back again. It’s a Mickey Mouse thing. This is not the solution,” Louie said.

“We call it the compassionate disruption. If we keep going back to certain areas where get a lot of complaints, those complaints occur because people repeatedly go back. I think it changes the pattern,” Mayor Caldwell said.”