Sears/Kmart quickly disappearing

[rekees4300]

They are closing 72 more stores and selling off Kenmore brand.

"The company closed a total of nearly 400 stores during the past 12 months, and now has a total of 894 left, including the 72 slated for closure. The two chains had a total of 3,500 U.S. stores between them when they merged in 2005."

Sears is closing 72 more stores

 

[Oldoak]

Not surprising. I think Sears/Kmart will completely disappear from the retail market in the not too distant future.

 

[jmc]

Another article summary said the corporation will probably fail but the hedge fund guy who masterminded this slow motion failure will do just fine.

Both companies had huge headstarts, economies of scale, universal name recognition, stores about everywhere. How do you squander all that?

 

[TractorGuy]

Was at the mall last week which I rarely visit and decided to walk through the tool section of our Sears. Saw 2 employees doing something over in the exercise equipment area but no one in the tool/outdoor equipment area. They no longer have the checkout counter that used to be in the tool section. Didn't see a single customer.

 

[kcflhrc]

This pretty much sums it up

Kmart Sucks! - YouTube

 

[rekees4300]

How do you squander all that?

Stop selling merchandise, start selling credit cards.

 

[jmc]

Stop selling merchandise, start selling credit cards.

General Electric learned that the hard way too.

 

[Groo]

Kmart was on top of the world locally, until they put up a Walmart next door.....Sears is nothing but an aplience store these days. There are tons of those.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Not surprising. I think Sears/Kmart will completely disappear from the retail market in the not too distant future.

Yes, like Montgomery wards, zayres, and others before. Lots of chain food restaurants also on the decline, subway, applebees, chilis, etc.. Markets change..

 

[mddorange]

They are closing 72 more stores and selling off Kenmore brand.

"The company closed a total of nearly 400 stores during the past 12 months, and now has a total of 894 left, including the 72 slated for closure. The two chains had a total of 3,500 U.S. stores between them when they merged in 2005."

Sears is closing 72 more stores

Fast Eddie, who owns the hedge fund that bought Sears and then Kmart, only got them for tax write-offs.

As every retail reporter has written about over the years, he does not spend any money to update and upgrade the stores. In fact, he does not hire anyone with retail experience to run them either.

 

[Fuddy1952]

My Dad died a few years ago, Sears employee after WWII until 1982. My personal opinion in the big mistake with Sears is when Craftsman tools made in China. It was (imho) #1 Snap On, #2 MAC (couple others) and Craftsman a close 2nd when USA made. Advantage was average person could afford Craftsman. Typically the husband/wife goes to Sears, guy goes to tool dept., but since they sold everything there was clothes, toys-kids...something for everyone. Before I hear screams my wife of 46 years is a college ed. Mechanic!
Point is this...something for everyone.
Now...craftsman made in china, you may as well shop harbor freight. Correct?
Sam Walton was a genius. Here's why. Wal-Mart has tons of real estate. They offer shelf space to distributors. So Proctor and Gamble can display their products, if dish detergent doesn't sell then the price gets dropped or they get it back. Simple.
I wish I could suggest Sears CEO there's one last ditch effort...everything made in America, we can outdo the World in quality...people would pay more, but puts us back to work and better quality.

 

[mjarrels]

J C Penny will be gone soon also. Stupid CEO put a openly gay woman as the spoke person and that didn't set well with the publc. CEO was fired but the damage was done.

mark

 

[CobyRupert]

Over the past few years, Sears has been designed to fail.
I dare you to call their store and speak to a human that has any responsibility or can make a decision, and do so in less than 45 minutes. Especially if it relates to warranty or a service call.

"Hello we're happy to serve you"....then they're pass you around for 30+ minutes until they drop your call, or auto-schedule you for a service call that never happens, and when you call back... repeat the process again.
It has to be by design!

I use to take my chances with Kenmore appliances, knowing I could install or fix most things myself, but now their customer interaction procedures (at any step) are DESIGNED to be frustrating. And if you get a lemon, forget about it. Only recourse is to cancel credit card payment unless you want to spend 3 hours on the phone.
Either management, who designed these systems, have never used them or it's intentional.

Good riddance!!

 

[/pine]

IMO...Sears should have moved from large b&m retails stores to more catalog (Internet) outlets and service centers...
If they would have made this move they could have been ahead of sites like Amazon...they already had a trusted name and product brands along with the infrastructure...they could have offered 100% free shipping to any of their small catalog outlets that cost a fraction of what they were paying for anchor positions in malls etc...The K-mart deal was pure lack of foresight...

The distribution facilities they already had within the infrastructure could have easily been converted to 99% internet/catalog order processing and handling facilities...

I have a suspicion that what is left of sears will be bought out by one of the "dollar" type store chains...and or one of the two or three big drug store chains...

 

[JESSE1]

I used to buy all my tools from Sears but stopped when they started having them made in china. I found out Harbor Freight is 1/3 the price with the same warranty. No use paying a premium for foreign made tools. If Craftsman tools were still made here I would buy them even with the higher price. Sears won't be around much longer.

 

[forgeblast]

Sears website was horrible to use too. Looking for anything was a chore. I still have a craftsman rechargeable drill that I love but when it goes i will have to look at a different company.

 

[kcflhrc]

J C Penny will be gone soon also. Stupid CEO put a openly gay woman as the spoke person and that didn't set well with the publc. CEO was fired but the damage was done.

mark

Yep, you cant have those Gays out in the public spotlight. What was he thinking?

 

[Bird]

It was (imho) #1 Snap On, #2 MAC (couple others) and Craftsman a close 2nd when USA made.

Where do you think Snap-On tools are made? in 1997, one of my brothers became a Matco Tool Distributor and I went with him to their training course in Ohio so I could relieve him on his truck route, if necessary. Then, since I had a nice shop facility, I went into the business of repairing/rebuilding mechanics' air tools. And it wasn't long before my brother's chief competitor (but friend), the Snap-On distributor, was sending me his air tools for repairs. I don't recall ever seeing a Snap-On tool that was made in the USA. All I saw were clearly marked as coming from Japan.

 

[Thomas]

Another one bites the dust...well headed that way...indeed a shame.

 

[Jstpssng]

My Dad died a few years ago, Sears employee after WWII until 1982. My personal opinion in the big mistake with Sears is when Craftsman tools made in China. It was (imho) #1 Snap On, #2 MAC (couple others) and Craftsman a close 2nd when USA made. Advantage was average person could afford Craftsman. Typically the husband/wife goes to Sears, guy goes to tool dept., but since they sold everything there was clothes, toys-kids...something for everyone. Before I hear screams my wife of 46 years is a college ed. Mechanic!
Point is this...something for everyone.
Now...craftsman made in china, you may as well shop harbor freight. Correct?
Sam Walton was a genius. Here's why. Wal-Mart has tons of real estate. They offer shelf space to distributors. So Proctor and Gamble can display their products, if dish detergent doesn't sell then the price gets dropped or they get it back. Simple.
I wish I could suggest Sears CEO there's one last ditch effort...everything made in America, we can outdo the World in quality...people would pay more, but puts us back to work and better quality.

But people won't pay the extra prices, and that's the problem. Too many would rather spend 5$ three times on junk; rather than spending 10$ once. Now you can buy junk which is also lifetime warranteed; if you don't mind stopping in the middle of a project to go do an exchange.

Over the past few years, Sears has been designed to fail.
I dare you to call their store and speak to a human that has any responsibility or can make a decision, and do so in less than 45 minutes. Especially if it relates to warranty or a service call.

"Hello we're happy to serve you"....then they're pass you around for 30+ minutes until they drop your call, or auto-schedule you for a service call that never happens, and when you call back... repeat the process again.
It has to be by design!

I use to take my chances with Kenmore appliances, knowing I could install or fix most things myself, but now their customer interaction procedures (at any step) are DESIGNED to be frustrating. And if you get a lemon, forget about it. Only recourse is to cancel credit card payment unless you want to spend 3 hours on the phone.
Either management, who designed these systems, have never used them or it's intentional.

Good riddance!!

The last time I went into a Sears store was to buy a pair of jeans. I stood in line at the only register open, waiting for the person in front to find a credit card that worked. She kept trying and trying... for 10 minutes I waited, looking at the number of people in front of me. Then I put my item back where I got it from and left. I used to try to patronize them because of the way they would keep paying their full time employees who were doing Guard duty(actually they would make up the pay difference) but doubt there are many full time employees left anyhow.