Posted on 12/04/2016 2:30:46 PM PST by ARGLOCKGUY
Things aren't looking good for Sears. The company is shutting down dozens of Kmart stores this month and two of its highest-ranking executives left this week in the midst of the key holiday shopping season. This comes following speculation among Sears and Kmart employees, suppliers, and several banks that the retailer will soon go bankrupt — something Sears has repeatedly dismissed. Jeff Balagna, formerly Sears' executive vice president, left the company Wednesday, "in order to focus on his other business interests and pursue other career opportunities," Sears said in an SEC filing dated November 23.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
From what I read, Craftsman Industrial tools are made here.
I go to tag sales. Pennies on a dollar :)
Ahh...the mammeries...err...I mean the memories...
Kenmore=Whirlpool.
That is how I would bring SEARS back. Niche market in classic American home design and plans. Real wood, real brick delivered to your work site. And sell everything else made in the America.
I think it was George Carlin who quipped, “Did you ever walk around Sears wondering what happened to Roebuck?”
I was in a KMart a couple of weeks ago. The first time in ages. They’ve resurrected the blue light special.
One of the worst things Sears ever did was change the layout of the stores. It used to be you could look all the way across the store and see everything. When they changed it to a maze it became so hard to find your way around; find what you were looking for, and then find a cashier, that it just wasn’t enjoyable to shop there anymore.
Penny’s did it too and I also hate shopping there now.
Sears shouldn’t have messed with a set-up that was working for people.
Too bad.
My 2nd Fortune 500 account early in my career when I was told I couldn’t sell the even the Fortune 2500....
Otherwise known as sewing two dead horses together and hoping you get Secretariat.
“Did you ever walk around Sears wondering what happened to Roebuck?”
The company had sales of $800,000 in 1895, but the national Panic of 1893—a full scale depression—caused a cash squeeze and large quantities of unsold merchandise. Roebuck decided to quit (though he later returned in a publicity role). Sears offered Roebuck’s half of the company to Chicago businessman Aaron Nusbaum, who in turn brought in his brother-in-law Julius Rosenwald, to whom Sears owed money. In August 1895, they bought Roebuck’s half of the company for $75,000. The new Sears, Roebuck and Company was re-incorporated in Illinois with a capital stock of $150,000 in August 1895.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears
Yes, I wonder, too. The only reason I ever go into Sears is to make a Lands End return.
I will say our local Kmart is pretty nice. Clean, bright, well-stocked.
No wonder their ratchets are CRAP!
Brennan, the RNC Treasurer, drove Sears into the ground. Many people had great ideas on how to save Sears. Sears partnered with IBM to buy Prodigy and turn it into an AMAZON. But the middle management of Sears (and IBM) lacked the vision, the same way they were clueless what to do with the first CLOUD, ADVANTIS.
Martinez replaced Brennan (finally). Martinez had the right ideas for Sears. His ideas were supported by us at the bottom of the food chain. We demonstrated that we could collect sales from each store and order stock replacement in real time from Levi, Lees and other suppliers to be shipped in real time via UPS/FEDEX directly to the store... or even to the customer.
Middle management fought every good idea from Martinez, and then from Lands End and all the others with good ideas. Middle management salaries and pecking order was based on two things: head count and budget. The warehouse and truck distribution system was a gigantic bureaucracy with amazing corporate power.
The buyers did not want to relinquish restocking decisions to computers. It would decimate the headcount in their bureaucracy. Hundreds of staffers poring over quarterly report was good enough for them in the 50s and they were determined to keep it in the 90s and beyond.
Draining the Swamp is more comparable to the task of turning around Sears than anything I’ve seen in 50 years of consulting. Trump doesn’t need a Martinez with the SOFTER SIDE OF CONSERVATIVES. Trump needs a bunch of Chainsaw Als who are skilled at telling the deadwood:
You’re fired. Get a real job. The ability to say You’re fired is why Trump is president more than the wall or any other single thing. We can’t create jobs without some creative destruction of the job killers.
Any advice on a good homeowners tool kit? I was given Craftsman tools by my father in law back in 1986 and they’ve held up fine.
I noticed that about ten or so years ago. Same little compressor, Sears name on one, Harbor freight version was about half the price. Same for air nailers.
But in HF you didn’t have one programmed sales Associate after another nagging you to buy an extended warranty, like HH Gregg salesman stalking you around the store: “No. For the third time, I’m just looking. But when I’m ready to buy it won’t be you writing it up.”
The Sears store in Aiken, SC was located in a local shopping mall. Nice store.
The store closed and reopened several miles away as Sears Hometown at a much smaller strip mall in a much smaller location.
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