I like seeing pandering businesses shrivel up and die.
another business a victim of Obamanomics.
I am well aware there are challenges in the marketplace, and some “creative destruction” is part of the limited type of “capitalism” we now practice in the United States.
The fact is this: the federal government’s chief executive post was occupied for 8 years by the most anti-growth, anti-capitalist and anti-business clown in the history of the republic. Any positive movement that could’ve been made to relieve all businesses of regulation, taxes, and other handcuffs was stopped—and in many instances REVERSED.
Sears may have died with or without the Valerie Jarrett man child...but one thing is certain: the bad situation was exacerbated by the feds from 2009 to 2016.
When I was my daughter’s age, the stores near me included W.T. Grant (where I got my first credit card), Lit Brothers (where I worked two Christmas seasons), John Wanamaker (where my father worked in TV repair before I was conceived), A&P, and Sears (where I worked for seven years during and after college). They are all about to have one other thing in common.
Substantial doubt?
It’s all over except for the wake.
Those three things were the core of the company. Time to pull the plug.
Well, does Eddie Lampert have ‘substantial doubt’ that he knows anything whatsoever about running a business? Don’t answer that question....
I’ve only been in a Sears once in the last several years, but I didn’t buy anything.
I’ve bought their detergent for forever. The 40 lb box lasted me almost a year. I hate that coming to an end.
It's over.
Call in the auctioneers and the lawyers and accountants and save back a modest cash bonus for whichever of them stays all the way thru to turn out the lights after the shelves are empty.
Everything Kmart touched turned to crap. Their glory days were short lived. So when Kmart acquired Sears the writing was on the wall. Indeed Sears might not have made it anyway given the bad climate for department stores. But Kmart can’t find it’s corporate ass in a dark room. It was over for Sears the moment the merger took place.
1) FIRE THEIR CEO
2) DECLARE THEIR UNDYING LOVE FOR TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS
That will fix everything
(no, I am not joking)
Where am I going to buy good sturdy clothing that does not cost an arm and a leg now?
Even my daughters end up liking the stuff I got for them there- the tissue-paper thin clothing from the specialty stores that have a small number of items on a table and hundreds of fragrance bottles never lasts.
Wonder how much higher minimum wages contributed to this....
Sears, like Montgomery Ward is an outdated model.
Sears was insolvent two years ago. But two years ago, they could have sold their building to make the pensioners whole. Instead, they sold the buildings to an affiliated company, just to burn through another $2.5 billion, and leave the pensioners with 50 cents on the dollar, some of which will be picked up by the taxpayers, while many Sears retirees will live in poverty.
Still, it’s better than Illinois, with some state pension plans at 13 cents on the dollar. But that’s the legislative pension fund, so I’m sure the legislators will legislate to shovel more bucks at their problem.
Sears and the railroad helped usher on the end of the independent general store. They were too big and unwieldy to outmaneuver Amazon and the internet.
I was in a Sears about a month ago, it was not pretty. The hardware section has dried up, and the clothing sections were very spartan, selection was extremely limited. Housewares was about all that looked well stocked, and I thought to myself at the time that Sears doesn’t have much longer to go, and Sears knew it.
In the same mall, the JC Pennys had made a clear effort to modernize. Whatever problems they face, they are at least trying.
I’ve had serious doubts about Sears for decades. Starting in the 80’s, Sears has made a lot of strategic mistakes. However, they are also emblematic of general American industrial decline, at least to me. When I was a boy my grandfather’s company made clothing for Sears. It was well-made in small town non-union factories right here in the USA, mostly in the South. Those factories have long been mothballed and most of those towns are dying.
One particular factory that made shoes now sits graffiti-laden and heavily vandalized. It once provided 200 solid jobs in a small town of 2,000 people. In the decades since it closed, nothing has come along to replace those jobs except for meth, McDonald’s, and a Wal-Mart fifteen miles away. Year by year, the town, once picturesque and proud, slips further into oblivion. I’m glad I can remember a time when America was good and great.
At one time Sears’ “Satisfaction guaranteed” was the best warranty in the business. Bad decisions since it’s pinnacle in the mid-70s have brought it down. Selling out to KMart was the kicker. It severely diminished the brand.
Selling off it’s classic tools and appliance brands is the end. Sears has nothing else to offer. They needed to reinvent themselves around good old fashioned reliability and durability. That still sells in middle America.
I’ve hated the Walmartization of rural America. To me it’s a sign of retail decadence and globalized intrusion into the heart of America. But no one can beat them on price. I still don’t get how Walmart can sell a blu-ray/digital video at $2-$3 cheaper than everyone else, including Target (Costco excepted for very limited current releases).
Back to Sears - it resonated with middle America in its day, because it was more along the lines of a ‘general’ store. It had everything a small farm/ranch could need and it had reasonably intelligent people in merchandising and sales. It’s catalog business was epic in its day. Sears and Wards invented that market and gave it away.
Sad to see it go - and I do still shop there for tools, auto, and appliances. I hope they find a way to survive -without selling off their hard lines.
They should do what all the airlines did - reorganize under bankruptcy.
Sears is dead.
Telling everyone that you are dying guarantees that you will not be resuscitated.
Sears is dead.
It will stay dead.