Posted on 12/27/2011 6:53:42 AM PST by Kartographer
Sears Holdings Corp. said Tuesday it will close 100 to 120 of its full-line Sears and Kmart stores as it struggles to attract shoppers. Sales for the fourth quarter are off a disappointing 5.2 percent compared with last year.
“Given our performance and the difficult economic environment, especially for big-ticket items, we intend to implement a series of actions to reduce on-going expenses, adjust our asset base, and accelerate the transformation of our business model. These actions will better enable us to focus our investments on serving our customers and members through integrated retail – at the store, online and in the home,” said Chief Executive Officer Lou D’Ambrosio in a statement.
The company will take a fourth quarter tax-related non-cash charge of $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion.
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My 13 yr old daughter wanted something from Abercrombie and I said for the cashier to use a bag that didn’t have a naked chest on it. My daughter was completely mortified.
My father use to say there were three things one HAD to do die ,Pay taxes, and pay Sears Roebuck. Sears was once the biggest and best for the middle class, so much so they did not think they had to conform when Wal-mart came along. That was the death nail for them.
Albertsons are already closing in Texas!
The Obama economy at work.
Yet dollar stores are thriving....
anecdotally, it was mostly on-line and gift card shopping for the guys in our house, while the women had to go to the store to do touchy-feely.
“and shop at home, (internet), is doing them in.”
That isn’t doing them in. Their LOUSY business practices are doing them in. They still use a 1980’s computer system for cash registers that takes 10 minutes just to try to make a return, or crashes so often that I don’t think there has been a time in the past several years I didn’t have to wait for them to try to get the sale through. They simply are doing themselves in.
Recently we were in the market for a upright freezer. We had landed on a model from Lowes and decided to check out Sears. We bought one from Sears, cheaper and appeared to be better built, and it was delivered in two days. so far it has been a very good purchase. I have to admit that I was very sceotical when we went to Sears. I have my fingers crossed.
“he finally admitted that the stores and the online operations were two entirely different entities and that there was no integration between the two.”
That is another major thing. I bought something online, received a confirmation email to pick it up, went to the store and they didn’t actually have it for pickup, never did.
My new slogan: Hope and change, huh?.....Got any left? Idiots!!!
My husband had a very similar experience. He needed a new air filter for his air compressor and when he went to Sears to purchase one, he was told he could only order it “on-line.” What a mess - they sent him only one and he ordered four, and then it took six phone calls to get the other three (and they even tried to charge us for the shipping on the three they didn’t send).
I’m sure we will lose 1 at least since in this city of 28,000 we have 2 Kmart stores and a Sears too.
The demise of Sears was foreseen long ago. It started when Sears stopped being a consumer oriented business and wanted to become a huge conglomerate.
They did this by building dependency among their suppliers, then threatening to cut them off unless they slashed their prices, and then, after hurting them, to buy them out at a discount. Then while keeping the good reputation and status of that brand name, to ruin it by slashing quality.
Many good American businesses were destroyed this way, and Sears made a lot of enemies.
At the same time, Sears ended its long held a hire-to-retire policy that created strong loyalty among its employees, instead firing those with seniority and hiring cheaper replacements. So their service quality withered.
Then, much to their surprise, this started to hurt their business. Granted, those responsible had either been promoted to upper management or moved on to ruin other corporations.
But Sears was ready to blame everybody but themselves for their decline. The big merger with KMart, of a failing business bought up by another failing business, was just the icing on the cake.
Yet it is a long, slow, terminal illness that afflicts Sears and will eventually kill it. A tragedy, really, but that’s what you get when you hold management vipers to your breast.
To compete, Sears needs to provide something it’s competitors don’t. They had it and lost it. Perhaps if they tried it again, they can survive with a last ditch effort. Just bring back the annual catalog - mailed once each year - and in late August, mail out the Holiday Wish Book. Speaking for myself, I continue to purchase more items from mail order catalogs than online, and I find myself less inclined to shop in malls in the weeks prior to the holidays.
“My dad thought Craftsman hand tools were the best for home use until Sears bought K-Mart”
Had friends who ran an auto repair garage. Once a year they’d collect all the broken Craftsman wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, etc. and swap them out at Sears for new ones.
I went through two Craftsman 100’ steel tape measures a year for 15 years and only had to buy two of them; the first purchase and once more when I lost one.
A couple of Albertson’s in my area have closed in recent years. Fred Meyer and Safeway seem to be going strong, along with some of the more upscale places like Whole Foods and Central Market (I don’t know if Central Market is independent or part of a chain.) And in the pharmacy niche, we now have Rite Aid and Walgreen’s everywhere, with the edge going to Walgreen’s. (Rite Aid has a bit more of a blue collar feel, and I’ve heard rumors they’re struggling.)
>>>The demise of Sears was foreseen long ago. It started when Sears stopped being a consumer oriented business and wanted to become a huge conglomerate.
I used to buy Lands End clothes... until Sears bought them out. Things went to crap after that. Now, It’s Duluth Trading Company... for me, it’s everything Lands End used to be... quality, service, selection, sizes that fit...
Thanks for the tip. I know some folks who used to like Lands End and will appreciate having a better catalog.
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