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18 Depressing Photos That Show Why Sales Are Crumbling At Sears
Yahoo Finance ^ | January 9, 2014 | Ashely Lutz

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: bhoeconomy; economy; retail; sears
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To: Hojczyk
I have bought, exactly, two things at Sears in my entire life. One was a tire pressure gauge. Two was a stove. The stove was delivered to me dented on the side. I called to complain and they knocked, like, ten percent off the price. I kept it simply because you couldn't see the dent.

The store never appealed to me but I hate to see another Obama victim. Especially an American institution.

61 posted on 01/09/2014 2:47:19 PM PST by riri (Plannedopolis-look it up. It's how the elites plan for US to live.)
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To: shibumi

You sell off the profitable stores if you’re looking to wind down the company and go out of business.


62 posted on 01/09/2014 2:47:49 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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To: bigbob

There was a Kmart about 30m from my house. It closed a few years back. Its ‘associates’ were stealing them blind. Repeated attempts to remedy the situation weren’t met with much success because the local constabulary was the same demographic as the associates.

Now we just have Tarjay and WallofChinamart. I despise both. I really hate the mall anymore, even the strip malls.

Kmarts have been trashy experiences for a long time. I visited one in El Paso in the mid 90’s that I literally had to kick aside merchandise off the floor to walk in the womens department. Yeah, I’m gonna buy that stuff.


63 posted on 01/09/2014 2:47:49 PM PST by Black Agnes
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To: F15Eagle

exactly! I raised my boys in Sears clothing, on Sears bikes, in a home filled with Kenmore appliances, that was in part built with Craftsman tools. Nothing was glamorous, nuttinfancy, but the quality was damned good and solid, dependable. Their credit policy and sloppy accounts department lost many, many customers, including me. I think I would be happy to go back to shopping Sears “catalog” on-line.

I once worked for a manufacturer who made Sears brand merchandise-—the QC was ten times higher for Sears than for Neiman-Marcus.


64 posted on 01/09/2014 2:48:08 PM PST by Segovia
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To: Hojczyk

Sears was using the exact same shelving seen in photo #3 when I worked there...in 1983. :)


65 posted on 01/09/2014 2:48:53 PM PST by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: Hojczyk

Although the writer only visited one store, still, this comports with my (and apparently most others’) impressions of most Sears stores generally.

Sears has some fine brands, but it will be the next Kodak if it doesn’t slash and burn, leaving only PROFITABLE ventures like Craftsman tools, Kenmore appliances, Sears-branded home and auto repairs, etc. No one buys clothing or general housewares there anymore.


66 posted on 01/09/2014 2:48:59 PM PST by pogo101
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Comment #67 Removed by Moderator

To: The Cajun

Well then, it seems their new policy is to not honor warranties. We gave up on trying to reason with Sears, and had our Chevy dealer put in a battery for half the price. Sears will never see us again. I hope they go under. They deserve it.


68 posted on 01/09/2014 2:49:09 PM PST by TheConservativeParty
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To: Hojczyk

I remember when Sears sold the Allstate automobile (a rebadged Henry J) along with David Bradley farm wagons and J.C. Higgins bikes, rifles, shotguns, etc.. Sears had it all.....


69 posted on 01/09/2014 2:49:14 PM PST by Ben Hecks
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To: Hojczyk

We have a Sears Hardware in our town, with a local “Do It” center hardware across the street. The Sears is dead, the Do It is always hopping. The Sears Hardware actually has more stuff, but the prices are crazy. The Do It is a family business and is very friendly; I know a lot of the kids who work there as summer jobs. It’s just like the neighborhood hardware store my dad went to. I’ll either go to the Do It for the basic quick stuff, or drive the extra 10 minutes to go to Lowe’s.


70 posted on 01/09/2014 2:49:26 PM PST by henkster (Communists never negotiate.)
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To: dead

Aye.


71 posted on 01/09/2014 2:49:27 PM PST by Irenic (The pencil sharpener and Elmer's glue is put away-- we've lost the red wheel barrow)
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To: grania
"... How can these companies be as stupid as they are?"

First, they don't attract the best and brightest in retail execs. Mainly because of the second issue: These companies are so old-cultured and unnavigable with Byzantine processes and undivorceable fulfillment of shareholder duties, with each department knowing how to protect its rice bowl entirely suspicious of all new thinking and change, they're just unmanageable and next to impossible to rebrand.

Any new CEO coming in would quickly find themselves the caretaker at a cemetery. Any motion of 'we need to tear this part down, consolidate over there, and streamline this element over here within this timetable I drew up' would find horrible rot and rust underneath every component across the enterprise with every hammer swing revealing more and worse.

Only a dictator with plenty of capital behind them could turn the ship around. Sears hasn't got the minds or the money and doesn't look like it's going to attract either very soon.

Anyone worth their salt would rather construct something new.... Like, oh, Amazon Prime.

72 posted on 01/09/2014 2:49:37 PM PST by The KG9 Kid
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To: Charles Martel

Tht reminds me of being a teenager in the late 80’s working at a Best buy type store in MA called Lechmere.
At first on a typicle Tuesday night there would be three of us working sporting goods, three in seasonal, three in housewares etc etc.
By 1988 there was one of us working both sports and seasonal, one in housewares, one covering both stereo and records, one guy in TV’s...it was horrible.
eventually Montgomery Ward bought them out and both went out of business shortly after.
It’s too bad because in it’s prime Lechmere was a GREAT store and a great place to work as a teen.
I STILL have friends from that place, just got off the phone with one of them as a matter of fact.


73 posted on 01/09/2014 2:49:44 PM PST by mowowie
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To: trisham

LOL.

I got one for you.....a brand you’ve never heard of.

It’s a Czech brand called ETA. My vacuum was made in the early 1970s, so it’s about 40 years old. And it still works great.

The best part? ETA is still in business, and I can still get parts for my commie-era vacuum cleaner. ETA says they will continue to make parts for the next 20 years for the model I have, which they estimate is the maximum lifetime of the product.

It made be commie-made, but I have to say, it’s surprisingly durable and well-made. Noisy....sure. Sounds like a 747 at takeoff. But it sure works good.

:)


74 posted on 01/09/2014 2:49:51 PM PST by AnAmericanAbroad (It's all bread and circuses for the future prey of the Morlocks.)
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To: Responsibility2nd; trisham

The problem with the brands is that the manufacturers seem to change a lot. I had a repairman recently tell me that Kenmore, Whirlpool and Maytag washers all (currently) use the same motors. I don’t know anything about LG. At one point I thought GE “made” LG, but no???


75 posted on 01/09/2014 2:49:53 PM PST by workerbee (The President of the United States is DOMESTIC ENEMY #1!)
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To: mowowie
I agree. You can feel the malaise setting in.

The only thing some of these businesses have to hang some hope on is the fact that many Americans are completely addicted to eating out and will spend their last two nickles doing so. The retailers are not so lucky.

76 posted on 01/09/2014 2:50:14 PM PST by riri (Plannedopolis-look it up. It's how the elites plan for US to live.)
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To: central_va

That information is probably dated. I was looking at combination wrenches and socket sets. Many of them were China or Taiwan manufacture.


77 posted on 01/09/2014 2:50:20 PM PST by Disambiguator
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To: Hojczyk

I don’t believe the liberal elites who run Sears ever shop there... if they did the stores would have been fixed years ago.


78 posted on 01/09/2014 2:50:23 PM PST by GOPJ ("Remember who the real enemy is... ")
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To: workerbee

When I was a kid I would cut the pictures of toys out of the Catalogue and put them on the mirror and “play” with them.

I know, I know...


79 posted on 01/09/2014 2:50:51 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: bigbob
How do you modernize a mannequin, anyway? Give it an ear-ring and put manboobs on the male ones?

ROFL. When I read that, I thought to myself: "Isn't modernizing a mannequin a lot like modernizing a garbage can?"

80 posted on 01/09/2014 2:50:51 PM PST by Alberta's Child ("I've never seen such a conclave of minstrels in my life.")
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