Sears, Other Retailers Reel From Gales Of 'Creative Destruction'

Investors Business Daily ^ | 1/05/2017 | TERRY JONES

[expat_panama]

Sears. Macy's. Kohl's. Traditional department store retailers have taken hard hits over the Christmas holidays, with sales lagging the generally robust performance of retailers overall. Now, these mall stalwarts are slashing thousands of jobs and hundreds of stores, trying to right-size themselves. It's no coincidence.

Sears on Thursday became the latest retailer to announce that it was restructuring... ...Macy's is letting 10,000 people go. And Kohl's warned about its decline in sales over the holidays. Analysts expect Kohl's to announce cuts.

A few years back, it was discounter Wal-Mart, the biggest retailer on earth, announcing it was closing 100 stores.

What's going on here? In a word, Amazon.com.

The online e-retailing giant has become a dominant force...

...as brutal as it sounds, this is actually a good thing... ...new generation of retailers is using technology to personalize the customer's buying experience and use artificial intelligence to compete on the web.

Sears will never be the same. Nor will the rest of the industry. And economic changes such as those experienced by our venerable high-end retailers aren't pleasant. But they usually are beneficial and even necessary, bringing new growth where there was none and offering new possibilities for workers and customers alike. So while we lament the nostalgic past, we should also embrace the possibilities of the future.

[GOPJ]

If Amazon moved away from ‘flea market crap from China’ to multilayered middle class department store - with modicum of quality control - they would take over the whole clothing market.

[Daffynition]

I lived in the middle east. Sears catalogs were coveted by the natives. They would pay a lot of money for the latest issue.

You could go into a tailor shop, and they would pull out a Sears cat. and you could show them the *style* suit you wanted ...they would bring out various yard goods...and in a few days, you could pickup your custom-made suit...of the *latest* style, of cloth of your choice. And they were quite inexpensive, IIRC.:)

[wtd]

Nice memories. . .of a bygone era. Excellent points about the parking issues and convenience of shopping all in one place.

[tomkat]

They won’t give me a discount for doing some of their work, I won’t do it. It’s as simple as that.

Ditto, FRiend.

My standard reply when told by one of the self-check 'attendants' that there's no waiting there:

if I wanted to work here, I'd put in an application

[wtd]

I recall similar haberdashery available here in the US...particularly in NYC via advertisements in the NYT.

One would make an appointment with Chinese tailors to be measured. Items would be ordered from catalog (not necessarily Sears) images & fabrics chosen from bolts lined against the wall - made to order in about 6 weeks. IIRC, 2 suits (jacket, vest, slacks), 6 fitted shirts, & ties were custom made for about $300 back in the late 1980's. Similar offers were found in a shop in the Annapolis mall in MD around the same time.

[smileyface]

Yes, I lived in one in CT. I swear the house down the street from us now in PA is a Sears home too, based on its look.

[oh8eleven]

I was at Smith-Corona and Kodak when they crashed ...
I was at Kodak too ... they got it two ways - losing the film war to Fuji, and the advent of digital photography.
Company responses were too little, too late (if at all) and pfffft they were gone.

[JayGalt]

It is a two edged sword but the small entrepreneurs I was thinking of are making a living where they had no jobs.
Even disabled people and people living in remote areas, both sets of people who can’t easily get out to work, can be successful through Amazon linkages. I think that the larger companies have the issues you mentioned not the Mom/Pop vendors.

Being really successful in business requires thinking two steps ahead and keeping an idea or two in reserve so that you can transition successfully. Amazon is on the Japanese model where you sell at a loss to grow your market share, crush the competitors and then jack up prices, they are not philanthropists. However the Japanese plan doesn’t always works and creates opportunity for niche development.

[angryoldfatman]

Then there was the bra and panty sections when you turned 13 or 14.

Became desensitized to them, had to move on to hardcore - Victoria’s Secret catalogs, back when they had models that weren’t anorexic.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Against my better judgement, I went to Fry’s Electronics in Palo Alto yesterday to pick up an external hard drive.
1. The store is filthy.
2. The interior hasn’t been refreshed since they opened 30 years ago
3. They cut their shelf heights by half a couple years ago
4. A lot of product spots,on shelves and racks are devoid of product. Not restocking inventory is always a sign of trouble in retail

I found a Harmony universal remote I wanted as well as a $50 1TB drive. The Harmony remote didn’t have a price tag and there was no price on the shelf, but I knew it was being sold for $50 off the normal price online of $350.

A nice young guy on the store floor took the product, entered it into the computer and gave me a big sheet of paper which indicates he gets the commission. That approach is so outdated — printing paper, giving it to the customer, and making him wait.

Got to checkout. There are about 40 checkout stations these days, but only 2 or 3 are open. The Harmony rang up at full price, $350. I told her it should be $300 as it is everywhere else. They have an Internet price match policy and I found a store online selling it for $272. She said “No, we don’t match them. We only match this list.” which had Best Buy, Target, and Wal-Mart. She couldn’t look up the price — I was supposed to do that for her on my phone. I said “Forget it, I don’t want the Harmony. I’ll just take the drive.”

Her response was “You can’t do that. The salesman already printed the paper for his commission You should have told him about the discount first before he printed the paper. You cannot take that product off your purchase.”

At this point I was boiling mad, said “Forget it! I’m going to Amazon where I should have started!” and walked out with nothing.

Moral: brick & mortar deserves to die.

Amazon is eating everybody. I keep thinking retail will do something to arrest the decline, but it just gets worse and worse each passing year.

[super7man]

The ONLY time I will use a self-checkout line is if I am in a rush AND there are long lines at the open tills.

Which is all the time for me.

[Daffynition]

I'm not sure, but from what I recall of the *craftsman* style of it, my grandmother's house was a *sears* model too.

It stood on about a 5 acre plot, where Welty Hall stands at CCSU. It was a wonderful self-sustaining farmlette, with a crystal clear stream running through it

. Don't get me started about how the state came in and *condemned* all the properties on Wells St [eminent domain]; and none of those people had the means to fight the state. Everyone was uprooted. And both my grands were dead within 2 years of being forced from their place; they couldn't take the change to their peaceful lives, being in their late 80s.

Anyway, I still have the 2X3 stained glass window, that was on the stair landing of that house. My dad salvaged it, B4 they bulldozed the house down. Seeing it breaks my heart. It represents the end of an era of America to me. E.G.:

[Daffynition]

This is similar to what I recall...

[Daffynition]

SHHHH!

We must talk about such things. >8D

[Daffynition]

Sorry...that one got away from me....should read:

We must *NOT* talk about such things. :)

[ctdonath2]

Kodak had a 5 year plan to handle the switch to digital.
Consumers switched in about 5 months.

The core mistake was thinking their customers were retailers (who just wanted the “buy film, drop off film, pick up prints” foot traffic, instead of the actual picture-takers who abandoned film.

[daniel1212]

Outside of those two categories, there are plenty of things I buy on-line. Many retailers will deliver your purchase to their nearest brick-and-mortar store, which saves on shipping costs. I need to make another on-line purchase very soon.

This is the now and the future for many things. But you must pray (+ see tag) and then press. For many basic non-perishable foods (like Coffee Creamer , 35.3) ozand household items and appliances (Pelonis Electric Radiator Heater, 33.94, or WEN Snow Blaster 13A Electric Snow Thrower , 18", $113.58 ) Walmart is cheapest, as long as you stay away from their partners like "unbeatablesales."

Ebay is also good for really cheap items like reading glasse s. Always choose the "price and shipping lowest..." and "buy it now" option. And be willing to wait like 3 weeks for the Chinese items (like cheap 0.75 gloves ). I get bicycle items (like LED Bicycle Bike Light and these patches (other ones are not very good) for far lower than any place else. Auto parts can also be had quite reasonably.

Then there is Blain's Farm and Fleet for certain household improvement things if you buy enough to reduce the shipping % cost.

But overall Amazon has the best service and selection. except for food items. It is worth it to take the time to compared prices. I looked up electric snow blowers for my neighbor, and Amazon has this Snow Joe Ultra SJ624E 21-Inch 14-Amp Electric Snow Thrower at 164.99 & FREE Shipping, which is 174.99 at Walmart, and 199.99 at home depot .

Sadly, to varying degrees most of these large stores support liberal causes. Sometimes you work them together.

After years of refilling my own inkjet cartridges for cheap printers, i researched and found the largest carts and price, and printers that used them, and found a HP 8100 slightly used for about 60.00 at Amazon, and now get a 5 Pk HP 950XL 951X L of cartridges for 10.95 and free shipping (price God) and which last a long time.

Jet.com is trying to operate on Amazon's level, and can beat prices, and is a good one to throw into the ring. Sears does not compete well. But thank God we can get anything, and are so blessed, yet we complain so much (too hot, too cold..). I often think and pray for souls in N. Korea etc.

[oh8eleven]

Kodak had a 5 year plan to handle the switch to digital.
The only plan EK had - year after year - was to keep the profits up by raising the price of consumer film and laying off employees.
The film people (who essentially ran the company) couldn't have cared less about digital.
We made some really good cameras (in Japan) and the Easyshare system concept was unique. But labor costs were still too high. So they moved mfg to China and the quality went all to hell.

[daniel1212]

The price of clothing is some thing i i wondered about. http://www.forbes.com/sites/danikenson/2013/07/23/textile-protectionism-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership/#3e8c22c9593a

[sheana]

I buy most of my clothing online. I mostly shop Nordstroms Rack and Hautelook. If it doesn’t fit I can take it back to the nearest brick and mortar and don’t have to ship it.
I found that even when shopping in a store I hate trying things on and would just buy and then if it didn’t fit return it. Online saves me that first trip. Lol