Sears Closing Hundreds Of Stores, Many KMart Stores Going Out Of Business As Well

[Purveyor]

Source: The Inquisitr

The Inquisitr-3 hours ago

Sears going out of business sales will be happening across the country this month and it looks like KMart will be joining in. With hundreds of stores expected to close before the year ends, consumers may find sales bigger than the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Green Monday sales combined.

Just last month, CNN reported that approximately 130 Sears and KMart stores would be closing, but recent reports indicate that at least 235 stores will be locking their doors for good, leaving thousands of employees without a job.



There are approximately 1,870 stores nationwide, including 1,077 Kmart stores and 793 Sears stores. While only 235 are slated to close before the end of 2014, there may be more closings to come. Allan Ellinger of MMG Advisors, an investment bank that specializes in fashion and retailing, tells CNN that the number of stores that are closing is a sign that both Sear and KMart may not be around “long-term.”

The New York Post reports that Sears reported a loss in the third-quarter of $548 million, which is nothing new for the retailer — the company has reportedly booked losses for nine straight quarters. Eddie Lampert, Sears chairman and CEO tells the Post that in addition to closing 235 stores, the company plans to sell 200 to 300 stores to a real estate investment trust (REIT). Under this plan that will supposedly increase cash flow to the ailing company, Sears Holdings would sell or lease stores to a separate company and then lease them from the trust.


Read more: http://www.inquisitr.com/1661493/sears-closing-hundreds-of-stores-many-kmart-stores-going-out-of-business-as-well/

[Archae]

1. That catalog came out the year I was born!

1959.

We used to get the JC Penney and the Sears Christmas catalogs after Halloween, and did we have fun looking through them!

[Purveyor]

9. I've got 3 years on you and yes all the Sears/Penny catalogs were a delight with

the 'Christmas Wishbook' being the favorite, of course.

[Archae]

12. I still have a 1970 JC Penney Christmas catalog.

You can see it here:

http://gijoe.ebcutler.com/christmas/1970s.html

That year we got a lot of "Johnny West" toys!

[Purveyor]

16. I can't remember the year but must have been around '68 when the Spring/Summer

catalog had a mini-bike that I just couldn't stop talking about.

That Christmas, my Grandmother Bernice saw fit to make sure I had it. Both mom and dad were way pissed off as they thought I would kill myself on it. Wrong they were and I learned much mechanically keeping that thing running.

She also bought me my first riding lawn tracter the next spring, God Bless her resting Soul.

I still buy Craftsmen lawn tractors, my latest being 10 years old, which I had to buy its first 'replacement part' aside from blades last summer.

[Liberal_in_LA]

77. I loved flipping thru the "wishbook" as a child

[Duckhunter935]

15. Here is a link to mine

1964
http://192.185.93.157/~wishbook/1964_Sears_Wishbook/index.htm

[mahatmakanejeeves]

67. More, more

http://192.185.93.157/~wishbook/

[Liberal_in_LA]

78. lol. little girl ski pants - pants with the thing that went under your foot. I had those.

[AngryOldDem]

87. I did too. My mom got the Penney's catalog.

I think I studied that thing harder than my schoolbooks.

Another catalog I liked was the one that came out in summer, with back to school clothes.

[LiberalElite]

2. IMO the worst thing for Sears

was merging with KMart.

[davidpdx]

4. Ha...I was just reading this to my coworkers and saying the same thing

What a raw deal for Sears. Kmart should have been imploded years ago.

[PoliticAverse]

30. Indeed. n/t

[JI7]

3. sears stores are a mess

Have they considered maybe just cleaning up and organising the stores a bit.

[MANative]

7. True, but not easy to do when you've cut staffing to the bone.

My local store is a 50K+ square foot building and it's rare to see more than ten people in the entire building. Adequate staffing would require more than double that. They should have consolidated unprofitable locations years ago, giving the core business a real chance to survive.

It might not be a bad strategy to hire a temp squadron for a number of weeks to get buildings that they plan to keep open into better shape, then upkeep is easier.

[Kalidurga]

28. I worked at a Sears store for almost a decade weeks shy of that

and they did cut staffing to the bone. Of course we were supposed to keep up with the work of 3 or 4 people. It's not really possible. I know people who have health issues, permanant ones from the stress of too much work and too little pay. Of course it's not the kind of thing they can get work mans comp or disability cuz who can prove they got an ulcer, cancer, diabeties, etc... from the stress of overwork?

[djean111]

5. IMO Sears and KMart both preyed on poor people with high prices and easy credit.

Last time I was in a Kmart, many years ago, I was shocked at the high prices for crap.
Now we are seeing austerity, or the recession, trickle upwards, as people just do not have money to spend or are afraid to spend what they have. JMO, etc.

[Blanks]

65. Where Kmart seemed to fail in my opinion...

Was that they stopped putting stuff on clearance. So the floors were filled with stuff that nobody wanted out of season and too high priced.

I was in a sears not too long ago and the tools were ridiculously priced. These are the kind of things that make you check in on them and then not return again for years.

[cstanleytech]

70. They had multiple failures like not investing in the stores themselves

and letting them get so run down that they made a dollar store look better by comparison also they cut their employees down to the bone in the stores so things got even worse because if that.
The funny thing is though they could probably have turned it around when Walmart dropped year round lay-a-way and focused on that and invested in the stores both with remodels and providing better customer service but that might have required the CEO and the other executives to take a pay cut and or pass on bonuses to pay for it.

[n2doc]

6. I guess Randian philosophy doesn't work in the real world

The worse thing about Sears is its CEO, who is a nutcase

http://www.salon.com/2013/07/18/ayn_rand_killed_sears_partner/

[Bradical79]

64. Yeah, I remember hearing about that awhile back

Along with some apparently very accurate predictions on how this would end up. It'S depressing.

[sendero]

88. Great article..

... thanks for posting that link.

[JeffHead]

8. I guess the vulture capitalists have stripped that carcass clean. nt

[adieu]

10. Eddie Lampert is a vulture capitalist

Goes in, buys KMart (and then Sears) for pennies, then sells just the properties in the high property value downtown areas to increase cash flow and give an appearance that the stores are back to profitable. Stock prices go up, he sells his shares, then bankrupts the company and let investors and others (probably the REITs) left holding the bag.

The reason he could do that was because the properties, especially those in prime downtown locations, were bought many years ago and GAAP required those assets to be valued at purchase price, less depreciation, so they were, on paper, worth almost nothing. But they were VERY valuable, given the prime downtown locations and the existing market value price.

Now, we can't change accounting rules to require that assets be valued at current market value price because some assets are difficult to assess. Once you built a nuclear power plant, for example, what exactly is the market value price for that plant? It's not like you can go on realtor.com or CL and advertise for sale at some amount OBO. Also, other companies may "too optimistically" over-value some of those assets to raise the value of their equity (hence stock price). That was what MCI and some others did.

[glinda]

13. that is interesting information

[happyslug]

41. Not so much Downtown locations, but the suburban STRIP malls

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

That is where the prime Real Estate for retail is. Kmart stand alone stores have to compete directly with Walmart, and in that type of fight the store with the lowest overhead is going to win. i.e unless Walmart over expands (and it does NOT look like that is the case), Kmart is dead.

Sears can survive at its mall locations, but the Malls have a problem. Since Reagan income for the lower 90% of the population has either held steady or declined. It has increase for the 1% and most of the 10%, but neither was ever Sears core market. Sears aimed at the Lower Middle Class and the Working class, and those two groups are the ones with the greatest increase in costs (housing, Student loans etc) and no net increase in income. Thus Sears and the rest of the stores in the Malls are hunting. Malls tend to cater to people making $25,000 to $100,000 a year, the Working Class and the Lower Middle Class. Quality is still a factor in this group when they go to the mall.

Kmart and Walmart aimed at the Working Class, people making less then $50,000 years today and in that market price is the most important factor. This group will switch stores over just a few dollars, even if it means buying something of inferior quality.

Now the Poor do go to the Mall for some items, and the Working Class and Lower Middle Class go to Kmart and Walmart for items they need. The key is what group is the Store aimed at and the Malls are aimed at a higher income group then the stand alone stores like Kmart and Walmart. Thus the Stores in the Mall have a little cushion compared to Kmart, a cushion provided by providing higher quality items. The problem with the Malls is many people are going on line to get their higher quality items. You no longer have to go to Sears to get top quality tools for example. Yes you could get good tools elsewhere in the 1960s to 2000, but Sears is where people went for high quality tools that were to be used around the house. Sears has done little to expand that section of their business for it has low turn over and profit compared to Clothing. On the other hand, people went to Sears for Tools not Clothing.

The most successful stores concentrates on its strengths (Walmart uses its ability to get low prices from supplies and thus has low prices but often at the cost of low quality, that is Walmart's Strength). JC Penney has concentrated in business wear for decades, and people have said it would go under for decades, but has survived for JC Penney knows its niche and does a successful job fulfilling that niche. Do people go to JCPenney for high end Business wear? No, but they go to JC Penney for decent but acceptable business clothing.

Sears was known for Tools and outside equipment (i.e. a "Man's Store", yes a lot of women went to Sears for the tools and outdoor equipment, and using the term "Man's Store" is sexist, but in many ways accurate if you view traditional sex roles and know that such roles never did exist except in theory). Clothing was always high profit and high turnover when compared to tools and thus what a lot of retailers want to sell, but Clothing was NEVER Sear's Strength.

As to Sears Clothing, my Sister called Sears Clothing "Black mail" marketing. A Husband went to Sears to buy a new drill, but a different drill then the other three he already had. His wife goes along and throws in some clothing for herself and the kids. The Husband could object, but he wants his drill, thus the clothing was purchased. This is where Sears clothing sales started and remain. Sear Clothing was thus "Blackmail" by wives to get what wives wanted in exchange to letting the Husband get what they wanted Such "Blackmail" Clothing was how many people ended up buying clothing from Sears. Sear then tried to make Sears a place to go for Clothing over the last 50 or more years but has failed, no one goes to Sears for Clothing unless nothing else is available. Thus clothing has NEVER been Sear's Strong point and even when clothing became very profitable, Sears should have understood clothing was NOT what brought people into its stores. You concentrate on what draws people to your store, not on what people buy while in your store. The difference is important and a lesson not learned by Sears and why Sears is dieing.

[du_grad]

47. The deals at our local Sears are amazing

I am probably the only one I know who goes to Sears to look at clothing. Their discounts are amazing. I just bought a nice purse where the original price was $48 and they had it (and many others equally as nice) for $12.99. Why they bought Lands End I'll never know. I had ordered a coat from Lands End and returned it to the local Sears (saves me shipping postage). While I was there I checked out the Lands End coats they had in stock. I found one but needed a different size. The sales associate ordered it off the Lands End site for me while I was in the store! I got the same 30% off that the store was giving.

I got some nice shirts for my husband at the beginning of fall that were already drastically reduced. They were as nice as Eddie Bauer shirts and I got three of them for about $42! EB charges that for one.

There is only one K-Mart left in our medium sized city and it is hard to get to. Since the one closed that's near my house I have not been there. They had good deals also.

The stores decor' and appearance is drastically outdated. That doesn't bother me but my daughter, who is 34 years old, won't set foot in there. It is perceived by that age group as WAY past its prime.

There is also a Sears outlet in the area where you can get great deals on appliances. I wonder how many of their stores will remain here? We used to have two Sears, a bunch of K-Marts, and one outlet. Now there is only one of each.

[Freddie]

53. Sears clothing

When my kids were little in the 90's I bought most of their clothes at the Sears in the local mall. Nice stuff, well made and good prices with great sales. My daughter has 2 tiny ones of her own now and wouldn't set foot in Sears, gets their clothes online mostly at Carter's.

[RobinA]

59. Growing Up Sixties

with a frugal mother, we bought all our clothing at Sears and it was some pretty decent and stylish stuff. I bought there well into Junior sizes and only stopped when I started shopping on my own. And then only because my sense of self wanted me to buy my clothing at a store that didn't also sell power eqipment.

I grew up with Sears. It was just where we went to get everything. Well, not my mother. She could shop at Strawbridges and pay more for clothes because she wasn't going to "grow out of them." We used to go to Sears to buy our Easter dresses. I'd say most of me favorite and best remembered clothes came from Sears. Even my pleather jumper I had to have in 1968 in 6th grade.

As for KMart. We had one very close and I always went to it once I could drive. WalMart was nowhere in sight in those days. KMart gave it away as far as I was concerned. When WalMart broke ground, KMart didn't even try to compete and the place became a mess. I started shopping WalMart because KMart became empty shelves and moronic salespeople. Last time I shopped KMart I preferred it to WalMart, but now we have none in places where I go.

[happyslug]

76. I did NOT say the clothing was bad, it had to be good for the "Blackmail" to work

My point was clothing should have stayed a SIDELINE of Sears, not its main emphasis. I do not mean that clothing could NOT be 90% of the store, but Sears had to make sure what drew people to Sears stayed #1, even if Sears made more money on Clothing then its Tools, White Goods and other non-clothing merchandise. Those later items is what brought customers in, clothing may be what they took out and once in the habit of buying at Sears would continue to do so, but getting them into the Store in the first place is the hard part.

In many ways, Sears ended up looking at its short term profits as oppose to long term business. High profit and high turnover in Clothing as oppose to lower turnover for its tools, white goods and other non clothing items. When in a business concentrate at what you are known for (or do like Woolworth, change your emphasis and image at the same time by adopting a new name and new look, i.e Foot Locker).

[adieu]

50. The point is

when downtown KMart stores were bought, it was perhaps way back in the early 1900s, way before suburbia was even invented. Back then, the price for the building might have been $20,000 for what would now be valued at $25,000,000 or $100,000,000.

The property isn't going to stay as retail. It could be bought out and turned into office building, or converted into condos or whatever. The point is that on the balance sheet, those buildings were listed at $15,000 or $20,000 because they were bought or built way back when in the early 1900s (K-Mart was founded in 1899). Imagine 200 such buildings in prime downtown locations of Chicago, NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, South Bend, Madison, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Richmond, Dover, Harrisburg, Baltimore, Washington DC, Dallas, Austin, on and on.

Each one valued on the balance sheet as virtually $0 because of depreciation, but the market value of those buildings, for whatever use, is $50,000,000 on average. 200 buildings at $50,000,000. There are another 1000 in the suburbia malls, but they were built later (maybe even as recently as 1980s) and the value is much lower.

He sold just the 200 buildings in prime locations and came out with, say, $10,000,000,000. Huge cash generation, made the stock price jump way, way up. He then cashed out.

Then, he bought Sears to try doing the same thing again. But his ego got the better of him and he actually thought he could manage a company, as opposed to cannibalizing a company.

[happyslug]

75. My point was the land was purchased in the 1950s and 1960s in suburbia.

And that was in the days of the 90% top tax rate with a 50% off set for long term Capital Gains AND the Corporate rate was a straight 50%.

One way to reduce taxes at that time period was to depreciate buildings as fast as possible, thus most of the Kmarts build in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s (Kmart's high time) value on the Corporate Books was Zero while before 1980 when Reagan rewrote the Tax Code. When these buildings were sold in the 1990s and after 2000, the Corporate tax was much less and was the source of income for Kmart during that time period.

The IRS accepted a 20 year depreciation of real estate, so by 1990 most Kmarts stores where held on the books at $1 or less.

My point was it was NOT the downtown Stores that Kmart sold, but its suburban stores of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I remember the old SS Kresge stores, they were sold to McCrory's in 1986, but these older stores were very marginal and McCrory's went out of business in 2002. The sale was NOT viewed as a real gain for Kmart, but a way to get rid of what they view as unprofitable stores. Thus the downtown "Kmart" stores (almost all S.S. Kresge stores as opposed to the much larger Kmarts) were gone by 1986 long before the merger of Sears and Kmart:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCrory_Stores

McCrory at its end had taken over most of the old Five and Dimes stores in the US. Most had been spun off by their companies as they abandoned the old downtowns and Main Streets for Suburbia in the form of Kmart and Walmart. i.e. the old Five and Dimes had lead to the Marts, but the Marts then sold off the Five and Dimes. These Five and Dimes had one big problem when compared to the newer Marts, no parking and that ended up being fatal to them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._C._Murphy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._S._Kresge

One Five and Dime that McCrory's did NOT end up with was Woolworth. Unlike the other Five and Dimes, Woolworth embraced the Malls starting in 1964 and started to close down their older stores. This also lead to opening of small specialty stores in those malls, the most successful was Foot Locker. Woolworth closed its last Woolworth in the US in 1997 and changed its name to Foot Locker in 2002 (Woolworth survived as a different ownership in England till 2002, and still survives in Germany where the pull of Suburban stores is NOT as strong as it was in the US).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Winfield_Woolworth

Just a comment the profit from selling real estate was in selling SUBURBAN properties NOT URBAN properties. The Suburban properties had value, many of the urban properties did not (closed and NOT reused in many cases). The Five and Dimes in Small Towns in the small towns (i.e. "Main Street" America) were killed off by Walmart and thus just abandoned not sold or if sold for pennies. In Inner Cities, lingered for a few years but then closed, in many older urban cores you had a McCroys near a Kresge, good when they were competitors, but terrible when they were the same company, one of them had to close and one did, but then the other rarely survived that much longer.

I remember going into SS Kresge, Woolworths and McCroys and walking on their old wooden, but well kept floors. You had the feel of the 1920s, no salesman to pressure you to buy, but also NOT the antiseptic and antisocial plastic of the Marts. I miss them.

[kwassa]

11. They were killed by Amazon.

Online shopping has hurt many retailers, and destroyed others.

Remember Borders?

[L0oniX]

19. Amazon is even beating Ebay.

[RoverSuswade]

33. That is amazing

because eBay's prices are much lower than Amazon.

[L0oniX]

35. Half the things I just bought were cheaper on Amazon.

[RoverSuswade]

38. I guess it depends on what you're buying.

[thesquanderer]

39. Ebay is a marketplace of individual sellers

It's very different because eBay doesn't set the price of anything, the individual sellers do. You're never buying something "from" eBay, you're buying something "through" eBay; whereas you generally buy things "from" Amazon. Amazon owns, warehouses, and ships product, eBay doesn't. Amazon does have a marketplace aspect, but Amazon largely prices and sells things itself. So Amazon sets most of the prices you see on their site, while eBay does not set the prices you see there, it's what individual sellers decide to ask. So whether something is cheaper on eBay is a matter of whether someone is selling something cheaper there. The selection of Used product is certainly much greater there, which is naturally cheaper.

[Demit]

43. Many businesses now sell on ebay. New products. At fixed prices.

[thesquanderer]

48. Sure. But you're still buying from those businesses, not from eBay.

So it's not that eBay's prices may be lower than Amazon's... but rather that some sellers on ebay may have have prices lower than Amazon's. Ebay itself doesn't price anything (they don't actually sell any merchandise), that's the distinction I was trying to make.

[L0oniX]

66. I see a lot of Best Buy retail on Ebay.

[Skittles]

51. if you really look you can find places that beat both

half-priced book stores, for example

[Sunlei]

63. ebay let businesses mix with regular listings, all ebay has left is paypal convenience

[Feron]

25. I disagree.

Amazon is likely a factor, but incompetent management is what's killing them.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-11/at-sears-eddie-lamperts-warring-divisions-model-adds-to-the-troubles

My local K-mart is absolutely abysmal to the point that Wal-Mart is an upgrade.

[RobinA]

60. This Was My Experience

Very little of what I bought at KMart and now buy at WalMart is stuff I would buy on Amazon. Wal/KMart is for low price stuff I need now, doesn't need to be quality, or stuff I need to see. When I needed a $50 dollar printer to take to work to use as a copier - WalMart. Photoprinter I wanted to see reveiws of and was willing to spend some money for - Amazon.

[christx30]

36. My washer broke. Lid switch.

Sears wanted $40 for it, and the closest one was an hour and a half drive from me. Amazon wanted $6, with free 2 day shipping. Guess which one I picked.

[Xithras]

74. WalMart and BestBuy did far more damage than Amazon.

Even today, most people don't buy clothing, or appliances, or tires over the Internet. When I was a kid, if you needed an air compressor, or a new television, or a washer and dryer, you went to Sears. School clothes shopping? Sears was on the must-stop list.

Today, the largest electronics retailer in the country is Best Buy. Amazon only comes in fourth. Sears doesn't even make the top 10 list. Appliances? Sears is still the largest single appliance retailer, but they own less than a third of the overall market now. Lowes, Home Depot and Best Buy have splintered their market. Clothes? Who shops for clothes at Sears anymore? Tools? There was a time when Craftsman meant quality, but nowadays it's all cheap Chinese junk. Home Depot and Lowes own that market.

Sears wasn't killed off by any one company. It was death by a thousand cuts. It's sad too, because I read a brilliant analysis a few years ago detailing how Sears COULD HAVE BEEN Amazon. Through their catalog sales division, they already had nearly everything needed to come out of the gate swinging and cement their place as the largest retailer on the Internet. What they lacked was leadership with the vision and foresight to do it.

[lunasun]

14. They just wanted the properties to sell - let both Sears and K's inventory and stores turn to poo

Hope low commercial real estate screwd the bastards
Shame as the brands themselves had customers but not anymore

[HomerRamone]

17. Just yesterday got a good deal there on a great Nordic Track winter jacket

but it has become a joke that almost every time go to Sears for something, they say "We no longer have that". Whole categories of merchandise, not just particular models...

[L0oniX]

18. Have a happy Walton merry christmas.

[Bleacher Creature]

20. The CEO is a total Ayn Rand lunatic.

http://www.salon.com/2013/12/10/ayn_rand_loving_ceo_destroys_his_empire_partner/

[yeoman6987]

21. The boycotts worked

This should be a clue to other stores that we will not shop in stores that open Thanksgiving. Also the African Americans who boycotted stores that day get a lot of credit. This is the best news of the year!!!! Congrats to all who helped close these nasty stores who don't care about their workers! We won!!!!!!!!!!

[bemildred]

22. Big Box retail is dying. nt

[tularetom]

24. Not at Costco it isn't

At least at the ones near where I live.

[bemildred]

27. Costco is not Sears by any means.

They say "wholesale", but I don't buy that either. They remind me of Fedco, a big box membership store we had here in CA until Target bought them out. But you are correct that they (Costco) are doing fine still.

[Kennah]

42. Costco is also union and takes care of it's people

[bemildred]

54. Quite. Not dumping on Costco.

Just saying what they do is not what Target does.

[Ikonoklast]

57. Only a few Costcos are organized, most are not.

[Kennah]

82. Seriously? I thought they were unionized in all their stores.

[sendero]

89. Regardless..

.... when I go into a Costco I can readily see that the employees are happy working there. It makes a total difference in the atmosphere of the store and the level of helpfulness you can expect from them.

[bobalew]

91. Wasn't that Gemco?

I remember having a Gemco card, & it died with the enterprise. I had a Monkey Wards card, also, & it magically got replaced with a Walmart card, after they went away which I don't use anymore. I did buy clothes recently at Sears, & the prices were good, but the selection limited. Some of the Tools are still good, but Yeah, they're all made in China these days, and even with the best of oversight, there is massive quality issues (the chrome plating fell off of the driver wrenches). There also was a Federated chain that died.

[bemildred]

92. That one was different than Fedco. There were a number of such stores before Raygun. nt

[ileus]

23. Today was the last day ours was open...

Sears that is.

[moondust]

45. Ours closed two years ago. n/t

[sadoldgirl]

26. Thank you, Walmart!

[Township75]

29. I thoughts Matt had a big deal with Rosie oDonnell a while ago...did they let that go

If so once thhe lost Rosie they lost everything.

[Terra Alta]

32. iirc it was Rosie who let it go

Because Kmart refused to stop selling guns. Good on Rosie's part.

[csziggy]

31. Sears made their big mistake when they almost eliminated catalog sales

About the time internet sales started growing. They should have kept the catalogs and moved them onto the internet - they had their systems set up for long distance ordering and would have been where Amazon is now.

I used to buy a lot of stuff from Sears catalogs - most of my basic clothes, jeans, tee shirts, and underwear; all my household linens (I still have a lot of towels bought from Sears in the late 1970s that are still in great shape, just don't match my current color scheme), and of course, tools. Back in the day I knew exactly which things in certain sizes would fit and it made buying work clothes so easy.

Then Sears changed to "fashion" lines of clothes and stopped offering the basic things through catalogs. I tried going into the stores, but they weren't keeping odd sizes in stock, and were attempting to sell to the fashionable and the youth market, none of whom were going to shop at Sears!

When their tool quality went downhill, there wasn't much left to go to Sears for. I did buy many of the appliances for my new house through Sears, but only because they had a good sale at the right time.

I'll miss Sears - not the current version, the old style Sears.

[3catwoman3]

34. I used to pore over the Sears catalog, and...

...when I was in high school (1965-69) I bought most of my school wardrobe from there very fall. College too. Fond memories of practically memorizing the Christmas catalogs. My dad worked for Allstate, and we got a 10% discount on all Sears purchases.

Never did like Kmart.

[Liberal_in_LA]

79. yes, the catalogs were useful

[rpannier]

37. You mean the Ayn Rand, libertarian model has failed???

How is that possible?
Competition is always good. Weed out the weaklings! and all that other Randian nonsense

[No Vested Interest]

40. I used to buy items that you couldn't find in a department store from Sears catalogue.

For instance, the bottom half of my kids' sleepers used to get holes in them, while the tops were still fine. Sears sold just the bottom half, and solved many a problem for me.

[Kennah]

44. We were in Sears a few days ago

Clothes for the kids, looking for the clearance and discounted stuff. Definitely feels close to the grave.

[Odin2005]

46. Sears fucked itself over.

Simple-minded executives only cared about the short term and so could not keep up with the times, just like Polaroid and Borders.

[SoapBox]

49. Our Sears is really very nice.

I was just in...lots of good prices and neatly organized. I noticed a couple months ago how helpful the employees were (yes, I was surprised).

However...went in about 8:30PM and it was DEAD...store closes at 9PM. Then went to one of 3 Target stores (staying open until 11PM) and it was jammed.

I do think that many Sears are getting a bum rap...and the more the media yaps about their decline (the bogus Yahoo story several months ago) the more it becomes the truth.

[BumRushDaShow]

52. 20 years ago, the gateway Sears building in Northeast Philly was demolished

It had been built in 1918 and served as a huge distribution center as well... Anyone headed towards that part of the city used it as a "landmark" that served as the gateway to the "Great Northeast" (as this section of the city was nicknamed).


IMHO, when Sears decided to get into the "diverse holdings" fad, branching out into areas far away from their core, it was the beginning of the end of them. For years, it used to be if I couldn't find something at other stores, I would suddenly remember "Sears" and would check, and voila! Ironically, Allstate was one of their early creations and "brands" that they did divest of, and we all know where that is now...

And of course, the yearly Christmas catalog was thoroughly studied in the early '70s! I even remember the year that a catalog had a men's underwear photo that showed a bit too much...

[IDemo]

55. Are NewEgg and Amazon going to kill Best Buy next?

I was in Best Buy Sunday, expecting a huge wait at the checkout and having just one person in line. The place was dead. I would think it would be popping with business during the Christmas season, but this would have been a slow day even on a regular business day.

[RobinA]

61. From My Standpoint

Best Buy committed suicide. Maybe I am not the typical customer. Went there looking at cameras. I was with my elderly father, who still thinks you can ask salespeople questions and get answers . The salesperson took the camera and started fiddling with it to see if she could amswer the question. Much like we were already doing, as we know our way around cameras. To no avail. Another time I went looking for their once extensive collection of photoprinting paper and found two basic paper types on an end cap. Off to the Internet. Nowadays I go there for cables, iPhone cases and various adapters. They gave my business away.

[AngryOldDem]

86. At least you got "help."

There have been times when I've been there and I've gotten no assistance after walking through the whole store looking for someone.

For awhile I was interested in tablets and was comparison shopping. I had some questions so I waited around the display while a salesperson was with another customer. Now, usually, when that happens the salesperson makes some kind of eye contact or says he'll be with you soon, etc., and I can deal with that, and I'll wait. But no. The guy did know I was waiting, but basically ignored me. So I walked off. I've gotten better service at a jam-packed Apple Store.

I compare this to back in the day, when BB had checkout lines that went for miles, and inventory out the door, when I'd go there to browse DVD titles. Could not hardly turn around without a salesperson asking if I needed help when it was pretty clear I was just looking. Honestly, if a business is slowly swirling the drain, I'd think customer service would be a priority.

Customer service goes a long way with me; I've been in no hurry to go back to BB.

[AngryOldDem]

85. Quite frankly, I'm surprised Best Buy is still around. n/t

[blkmusclmachine]

56. Give it 10 years, and the only place left is gonna be WalMart.

[Vinca]

58. Gee . . . I wonder why. My recent Sears experience:

Last edited Tue Dec 9, 2014, 02:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Last week the clothes dryer crapped out. After a search of local stores produced nothing, I hit the online site for Sears. We've purchased Sears appliances since we were married in 1973 and have never been dissatisfied. I found the dryer I wanted and proceeded to place the order. After entering my credit card number, the page asked for my address. I entered it. And I entered it again. And again. And again. And again. And again. After the sixth try to have the page accept my address I hit "live chat" and managed to find a customer service person who could place the order via the "chat" box. It took me a good hour to place an order for 1 item. I was not happy with Sears and now I'm waiting with bated breath to see if the dryer ever arrives. As for closing stores, you can't sell fruit from an empty cart. They might as well pack it in.

An update: It's a miracle. The dryer arrived and works fine.

[Sunlei]

62. Both never could adapt fast enough to online growth & got steamrolled by the others who did.

A shame for sears, imagine what they would have been if their entire catalog went online in the early days of internet shopping.

Next ones to die will be home depo and those other huge similar stores. They're horrible to try to buy online from. People want to order online, pay online and have a professional service install what they bought. If a business has separate 'in store only' that shows up for internet shoppers or 'call sales desk', their business will surely decline.

[jmowreader]

71. Home Depot's saving grace is they sell stuff you can't really buy online

Lowe's and Menards are the same way: bedding plants, rough electrical, rough plumbing, lumber and building materials really don't lend themselves to being sold over a website.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

68. I used to live about three or four blocks from Sears.

I had a job where I often walked to work, and Sears was between home and work. I would stop at Sears several times a week. I bought paint from them. I bought drapes from them. I bought an orange and yellow shag carpet from them. Hey, it was the seventies. I bought tools from them, lots and lots of tools. I had catalogs from them right and left.

Then Sears moved out to a suburban mall. Going to Sears meant getting in a car and driving. It was no longer convenient to go to Sears. I stopped buying things from Sears.

[mb999]

69. The target market for Sears is the high paid working class

Their customer base has been offshored and decimated. I'm surprised Sears lasted this long.

[olddots]

72. Sears was the net 100 years ago

Time marches on ( off the cliff )

[Owl]

73. Dang, I like Sears.

[blackcrowflies]

80. Sears used to be a wonderful place

then they got that nutcase CEO and it all went to hell.

[kwassa]

81. Sears was the Amazon of one hundred years ago ....

The catalog was the equivalent of the modern website.

They were the avant-garde of retail back then. Shop far away, and have the merchandise delivered to you. In some ways, nothing has changed.

[GReedDiamond]

83. Yes...I used to live in a house which was, back in the 1920s, ordered from Sears...

...and delivered to the Los Angeles area from Sears in boxcars, then transported to, and assembled, on the property on which I lived from 1994-2010.

The Sears House is still there, in great, mostly original condition.

Sears Catalog Home

On edit: Here is the model I lived in:

[kwassa]

84. and did it cost you $2,316.00?

and what neighborhood in LA was your house?

I lived in the Miracle Mile area for many years, near Wilshire and LaBrea.

There are Sears houses here on the East Coast, too.

[GReedDiamond]

90. This particular house is in Sierra Madre, which is...

...a great little town off of the 210 Freeway, up in the San Gabriel Mountain foothills, just east of Pasadena.

Sierra Madre is the only place I've been around in the Greater L.A. area which has no stop lights within the city limits. It's like the Mayberry of L.A.

I lived in the Sears house from 1994-2010. The house had originally been ordered and built in the 1920s by my landlady's grandparents, so I suppose they paid the $2316.

Unfortunately, I had to move out when the owner's daughter decided she wanted to move in with her boyfriend.

[hedgehog]

93. I really miss our K-Mart - I spent three hours yesterday traipsing around a huge mall

looking for items that I could have picked up in 10 minutes at the K-Mart. (Of course, then I would have stood in line at the check-out for 15 minutes, but that's another story!)

[TeamPooka]

94. If you service the Middle Class, your business is in big trouble. nt