I’ve worked at the Sears HQ being that they are one of our clients and their biggest problem is like so many old guard retailers they have failed to modernize their stores effectively. Another old guard customer of ours Macy’s has successfully modernized and kept their stores up and are not having the problems that Sears is. Sears Holdings also owns Kmart which is another study in circa 1985 retailer time machines. The worst part is that Sears has a great loyalty program and a lot going for it but there is this insane refusal by management to invest in upgrading the stores which is the #1 problem IMHO. Its run by an ex Hedge Fund manager which explains a lot of its problems.
No doubt, think their floor investment is $1 per square ft when average retail is $9 per sq ft. And this is annual spending, and they have been underspending on to this degree for a long long time now.
End of the day, investment banker at the helm knows jack crap about retail and has not listened to anyone that does.
Sears, Roebuck & Company was the Amazon.com of America’s outhouse days. When a company’s sales are growing they can afford to hire the best talent and offer a career path with promotions. When sales go down there’s little opportunity for advancement and the best people leave or are laid off by a spreadsheet monkey. That leaves the people that no one else will hire, creating a death spiral of sadness and failure.
More accurately, K-Mart owns Sears Holdings, since K-Mart bought out Sears not vice versa. I don't know how either stays open. Our local K-mart has a huge parking lot, always empty, even during Christmas season, very few cars in the lot.
Worked at a local sears basically to take a years break from my normal career path...got completely burned out from the Corp world...it was going to put me in a early grave...
I had the experience and background to manage the store I worked at...but was a simple clerk on commission...selling lawn equipment...
You comment is right on the mark...
Almost every aspect of the way they operated their business was antiquated from merchandising, to inventory control, to marketing...etc..etc..
sears will be gone in under five years...