Sears stores closing

I just saw this on the news: www.msn.com...

Apparently they plan on closing up to 150 stores and want to keep at least 300 open during restructuring.

Santa shopped the Christmas Wishbook during my childhood, too. Damn shame to see Sears go totally under.

a reply to: JAGStorm

I've noticed an increased vacancy in them as well. I just figured it was because people didn't need what they were currently offering. I bought a Craftsman riding mower from them last summer. Sucks they're closing down.

originally posted by: Plotus
The future is online...

One of Sears highest internal expenses where employee benefits and bonuses. People retired from there and lived very well. Even today those in the sales departments for the appliances are paid 30% of whatever your stove or refrigerator or washing machine costs.

K-mart screwed up when they acquired Sears. A lot of top brands pulled their products because they were afraid that selling them at K-mart would dilute their brand. Is isn't just going to be Sears. I had six years in, designing high end point of purchase displays and fixtures. Online retail is taking over. I know of people who go to malls just to try things out or try clothes on and then they go home and buy them online. Other stores are going to go the same way.

originally posted by: seagull
a reply to: tovenar

Amazon so much better tho, right?

Nope. The next thing I buy at amazon, will be the first thing. I don't do a whole lot of online shopping to begin with, but Amazon would be well down on the list.

I prefer stores. Always will.

I miss the Xmas catalog, too.

Oh man! Remember as a kid getting the Sears and JC Penny Christmas catalog in the mail!!! It was like the best day ever to hit up the toy section!

a reply to: JIMC5499

I'd say sears screwed up being bought by Kmart. Blue light special anyone! LOL Even Charlie's Angel couldn't help that train wreck.

originally posted by: Bluntone22

originally posted by: Ahabstar
a reply to: Bluntone22

Actually they did, made in China...

But marketing strategy and poor corporate decisions put them there. Such as not standing behind the Craftsman brand like in the past. But they are not the only company to fail to properly plan to market changes and technologies.

Kodak is still around, but have you seen any of their products lately?

Kodak actually had digital cameras real early but they didn't bother to invest and it kick em hard..lol

A lot of times what happens is that companies are too invested in an old business model and they simply can't evolve / turn the ship fast enough. A new upstart comes in without all the legacy baggage and is able to grow quickly and dominate the new market.

You see this now with electric cars. You saw with cell phones (many on this board never had a Motorola or Nokia phone... or even a blackberry).

Blockbuster should have been Netflix. However, they were so invested in retail stores they couldn't just close them all down The market changed so fast though that blockbuster really didn't even have time to react.

a reply to: lakenheath24

It wasn't a bad idea at the time. K-mart was going to convert to the Sears brand and upscale their stores. The mass evacuation of some major brands screwed it up.

a reply to: lakenheath24

You mean you were checking out the ladies undewear section. I suppose you scoped out National Geographic mags in the school library for the animals and not the occasional boobies. LOL

I actually did check the ladies underwear section, ------ cuz I'm a lady

a reply to: Edumakated

You are so right about the turning of the ship. This is also the reason big companies like to bring in young whipper snappers, sometimes the old goats just can't grasp what is going on in the market.

Motorola was so invested in the flip phones and analog technology that Nokia just wiped the rug from underneath them.

Then came Samsung, and Apple and on an on. No one company is immune.

Well, kids, that's what happens when you get old. No more Monkey Wards. No more Plymouth cars. No more Radio Shack. Somebody builds a better mouse trap, and they trap more mice.

Nostalgia is an interesting thing.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Yep, Xerox was another one!

And they lived to tell the story not once, but TWICE!!

...and THEN they decided to get into Parking (of ALL things!!) LOLOL! (THUD!)

originally posted by: LSU2018
a reply to: JAGStorm

I've noticed an increased vacancy in them as well. I just figured it was because people didn't need what they were currently offering. I bought a Craftsman riding mower from them last summer. Sucks they're closing down.

Man, I wouldn't buy another Craftsman mower, ever. I owned one with a Brigs. 12 1/2 hp IC Gold engine years ago and it ran and ran and ran so I bough another one around 5 years ago. It was absolute junk... Made by MTD now. Just say it. You bought a Murry mower.

a reply to: Blue Shift

Well, that's not exactly the way I see it, although I don't disagree in general.

In these examples someone 'thought' they built a better mouse trap, and they used their fancy "metrics" and "creative accounting" to suggest they were trapping more mice, BUT...at the end of the day the mice were all smaller and of lesser value than the original mice. Then, the whole system was accepted as the new normal. That's not a better system, it's a system where people use propaganda to make you 'think' it's a better system.

And when you zoom back out to the larger picture what you really see is, these concepts were accepted because impatient, lazy, spoiled people were given their way and they liked it. They could sit on their couch and push a button and a crappier mouse would show up right at their door. They never had to get their fat ass up off the couch and drive the car to the store and actually walk around. They didn't have to interact with other people (another by product of this 'better mousetrap'). So they liked their seemingly better mousetrap...and the whole world was worse off because of it.

That's what really happened.

Lol. I checked them out as well but I m a dude. Thank god i didnt run for public office.

a reply to: JAGStorm

a reply to: JAGStorm

ut oh where am I going t o buy my washing machines and dryers now? Kenmore was always a quality brand.

a reply to: JAGStorm

They been closing stores for some time now. One in my hometown closed couple years back. The one in the next town over is still there. The owner of that site says she ain't going anywhere

They all shut down in Canada a while ago, just think they had a massive sky scrapper at one time literally filled with all their office employees.
The biggest problem was the trust fund babies cashed out and just left it to rot. Didnt let it evolve. The Hudson bay company or 'the bay" killed them here, they evolved and are stil a contender in the shopping market, I still go there for most of my clothes shopping.

a reply to: Sillyolme

If you have to buy a new one don't buy LG
The LG stands for Looks good but that's about it!

Every once in a while, we'd go in to Sears when I was a kid, but not often. Even back then, my dad lamented their stuff was overpriced for what it was. Santa did not shop Sears at all.

Every now and then, I'll go in to Sears as an adult, but not very often. i see why dad thought they were overpriced -- they are. Granted, Penney's isn't much better, but I can at least find the specific bras I'm looking for in Penney's, usually a bit cheaper than Sears. Now that I'M Santa, I can't justify the prices there, either.
I'm not liable to buy clothes in a department store unless it's Penney's St John's Bay line -- that line I actually do like the quality & fit of to a point. I prefer Old Navy's quality & fits, and am willing to pay for them. Sears' clothes brands? No. Sorry, not sorry on that one. Even my husband quit buying his jeans there and buys the brand he prefers from Boscov's, which seems to be the only retailer in the country that carries them, and which isn't even in our region of the US -- he orders them online.

The problem Sears had, and still has, isn't lack of online presence. They lack the right price points, and depending on department, the inventory that people WANT. if they shook up their inventory just a tad, and dialed back the prices a notch, they'd have half a shot at surviving. Greed doesn't allow for that kind of common sense though, look at how the greedy mismanagement of Toys'R'Us went down.