Sears/Kmart is closing 150 stores.

Worst checkout and customer service in the business (KMart's), no wonder. You'd think being around the 'longest', they'd be the best at things/

End of an era for most stores minus WalMart. That is due to not only the internet shopping market but people have less disposable income. Shopping online is cheaper for the customer and the store owner. For many it's time to move the service sector job options onto marijuana, at least some of the closures are in states that support it.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

I was about to say the same thing.
last time I went to a k-mart, I swore I'd never go into one again, they were so bad.
didn't know we had two of them in this city till I just read the list of store closings.. wouldn't you know it they aren't closing down that rotten store that I went to but a different one...

Sears, K-Mart, Macys... were the free looky-feely for shoppers that examined what they wanted, and then went on the Internet to search for lowest prices. They did have a competitive advantage against online venues charging shipping , or increasing price to accommodate free shipping, but they had their prices too high because of building/employee's overhead.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out in the future, because people do have to have a place to looky-feel or they have no idea of product quality and features. Conundrum for retail for sure.

K-Mart has been in trouble and closing stores for many years now. Sears as well . The Wal-Mart effect as I call it

a reply to: Black_Fox

Wow...I was just talking to someone the other day about appliances and I mentioned Sears. She told me she thought they might be going out of business because they were closing a whole bunch of stores.

That's sad...my mom worked for Woolworth's ages ago and after Sears bought them out, she stayed with them through the transition. She used to take me to work with her sometimes and I would play in the clothing racks with my dolls. I remember them changing the big sign out front. I was three years old. That kinda bums me out.

a reply to: Gothmog

Walmart is probably buying them out. There can be Only One.

ALL OF IT happened under Obama's watch.

Can't blame Trump for this.

Just saying.

originally posted by: dreamingawake
End of an era for most stores minus WalMart. That is due to not only the internet shopping market but people have less disposable income. Shopping online is cheaper for the customer and the store owner. For many it's time to move the service sector job options onto marijuana, at least some of the closures are in states that support it.

If they did that, nobody would show up for work

a reply to: Black_Fox

I wouldn't be surprised if all K-marts eventually closed their doors. The K-marts where I live are dead. Walmart has taken a majority of their business.

I think Sears stores should have closed the retail-end of their business and focused only on Craftsmen tools which was a big portion of their sales. Only problem, I think the quality of their tools diminished, because if I recall, they moved their manufacturing overseas. Even their tool warranties are no longer the same.

originally posted by: seeker1963
a reply to: Black_Fox

What killed Sears? Was their damn extended warranty pushing from their sales associates. I used to work for them in electronics and got reprimanded because I didn't sell enough PPP's. (purchase protection plans) It pissed customers off to no end when buying a product having the person selling it to them shoving this down their throat. It wasn't the employees fault! Blame Corporate and Management. They didn't give a damn how much you sold, it was all about those extended warranties!


Feel bad for those who will lose their jobs, but Sears made it a lot longer than I thought they would.

a lot of customers never believed that protection plans were anything but a scam to make more money.
in a lot of states you have a number of months of product protection under state law.
and these protection plans are charging you for what is free under state law.
and you also have the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act (P.L. 93-637)
en.wikipedia.org...

I'm pretty sure the Kenmore brand is for sale too. Sears will be gone this year and I say the first half unless they sell a lot of empty buildings.

originally posted by: ketsuko
The one I worry about is Barnes & Noble, but they seem to be attempting to adapt by working hard at hosting community style events to bring people in and make their stores more than just a bookseller. It may be part of what is helping to save them in the face of Amazon.

They're also testing four stores with actual alcohol and more restaurant/bistro style kitchens instead of the standard Starbucks cafes. We'll see how that goes.

My sister-in-law manages one up north. They're on shaky ground.

I remember, as a kid, when KMart had a grocery store. I LOVED going with my dad. He would buy me submarine sandwiches, ICEES, and slim jims. They had the best subs!

It's sad to see Macy's, KMart and Sears closing. It's the end of an era.

January 30, 2017

SEARS IS ALMOST NO MORE...

""Final chords are fast approaching for what was once America’s best-known, and largest retailer. The “experiment” of hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert, who once promised to turn the company around, instead hangs like a weight around his reputation, even on Forbes’ billionaire list.

The stock’s latest fall, 13% on Jan. 30, takes the value of Sears down to $640 million. That’s 71% below where it was in 2016. In 2007, SHLD stock traded at $190 per share. That’s more than $10 billion wiped away.

During its 2016 fiscal year, which ended in January, Sears lost $1.129 billion on revenue of $25.1 billion. For the first three quarters of fiscal 2016, SHLD had lost $1.6 billion on revenue of $16 billion.

Writer-analyst Brian Sozzi has been documenting the sad state of Sears stores since 2013, and nothing has been done about it.""

SOURCE: www.msn.com...

Should President Donald Trump intercede to save American jobs by rescuing SEARS, in some way?

-cwm

a reply to: Black_Fox

How many jobs are lost due to the shutdowns?

It's sad to see Sears on it's way out but I'm not surprised. After generations of being the go to place for most anything other than food, it's bad prices and mismanagement have done it in.

I still remember as a child, getting excited when we were headed to Sears a couple of towns away to buy something. There were no super stores as we know them today, we had Sears and their catalogue. The then giant Sears stores were the only place you could see or buy a lot of things. I remember when they first put out the first console TV's with a built in video recorder. Nobody could afford one, but we could get all excited looking at one and thinking soon we will be able to record that snowy, crappy picture we got off our rabbit ears with the wad of tin foil on the tips.

Why Sears did not keep up with things has baffled me. The last few times I went in, I left and bought somewhere else due to being able to buy from a small local merchant cheaper than at Sears. I think they put all their eggs in the basket of giving credit cards to people who could not get them elsewhere and then selling them overpriced goods on that card. It failed, just like letting people buy houses they could not afford failed.

originally posted by: ketsuko
I've seen it written somewhere that Sears missed the boat big time.

They were the kings back when catalogs were big, and they should have started shifting that model toward an online one. But they instead stubbornly persisted in their brick and mortar catalog model. They got outclassed when the internet and online sales revolution took off.

They failed to adapt and evolve and they are paying for it now.

Sears Should have been the Amazon.com of Today . Evolve Or Die . Mismanagement of a Business usually ends in Bankruptcy . R.I.P. Sears .

a reply to: Tardacus

Yes! Most people didn't know that. A few years ago I lived in a hundred-year-old (or thereabouts) house that was just that, a Sears catalog house. So cool!

Where I grew up in Michigan, the local SEARS store wasn't part of a mall, like most of them are now. It was just a free standing building with a parking lot around it.

They had a huge barrel of peanuts in the shell, just inside the door for the children. You'd grab a bag, fill it with peanuts (using your bare hands), and walk with your parents, cracking/eating peanuts, dropping the shells on the floor. Lots of FUN during those simpler times.