Posted on 12/08/2016 8:26:32 AM PST by SandRat
Sears.
Dead Store Walking.
How they’ve managed to stay alive so far is amazing. Having said that, I admit to have shopped there twice this year. That’s two more times than I usually do.
The guy who is running this really needs to let folks who know what they are doing take over... Sear’s is a depressing story, this guys treating retail like wall street isn’t working... hasn’t worked... and sadly this has gone on so long, I really don’t see how Sear’s can ever recover it’s identity. Its been more than a generation since its had any real relevance in the shopping consciousness.
It’s allowed its core assets to be sold elsewhere, Craftsman etc, so there is even less drive to go there.. and those brands have weakened in value as well.
Its one strong hold was appliances, but even that has been just nibbled away by big box stores etc...
I was at the mall on black friday, later in the day, and the Sear’s literally looked like just a typical weekday afternoon.. granted it was after their door buster times etc.. but still... How long can they just keep managing their slow death?
Will they ever really make a true effort to be on the offensive, and make a play?
On line shopping is killing stores people are to lazy to shop at a store they would rather flop out at the house and graze because they have nothing else to do.
My family still buys vacuum cleaners under the Kenmore brand from them. I also buy only Craftsman and Snap-On tools. I will be sad if both brands go bye-bye in the future. I have never had any quality complaints about their tooling, but love the fact I can go in and exchange dull screwdrivers for sharp ones due to their lifetime warranty. They are still made in the USA too.
The atmosphere is changing, and legacy marques could make a comeback under it. Sears had more of a name than K-Mart did.
Shopping malls are becoming extinct.
Sear’s was always in a better position than K mart.. K Mart was basically just wal mart in places that didn’t have wal marts... now that wal mart is national, it has no place to live... Its urban locations gave it some relevance, but that’s declined with time as well.
Sear’s however, lost its identity, even before this guy took it over, and hasn’t had one since... its been over a generation now. Sear’s used to be where everyone under a certain income level got nearly everything... why? Because they were the one place nearly everyone could get a credit card from... so, when you needed something, and you didn’t have a lot of cash, you went to Sear’s and used your Sear’s card... so nearly everyone in the upper lower, and lower middle class shopped at Sear’s... You couldn’t go into a blue collar neighborhood and find anyone who didn’t have a huge amount of everything they owned from Sear’s...
Now.... not so much.... It’s lost its identity, and the guy running it since the takeover is just unwilling to recognize he doesn’t know retail.. 20 years or whatever it is on now, and he still can’t recognize reality... he needs to let someone who knows what they are doing in this space take over.
Rising tides lift up all boats. Maybe the existing management may get a clue; maybe others in the organization may become inspired and give him a clue or successfully bump the clueless management out by appealing at the right level.
A mild austerity, such as what America has had, has made the experience passe for a lot of people. People often don’t go with a shopping list, but to get inspiration about what might be useful to them.
When I was there, it was no bigger than a Dollar General and most things had to be catalog ordered.
Its not the management, its literally one man Edward Lampert himself that needs to wake up. Until he does, Sear’s is just going to be forever stuck managing its decline.
Maybe it’s time for him to get tired of it and retire to some paradise.
Shopping malls are becoming extinct.
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I haven’t been to one in 20 plus years. Are “teens” the reason they are closing?
I buy my husband’s Joe Boxer undies from them. It’s a tradition at our Tucson store.
Sears was cool when you could but a house and have it shipped in raw materials form by rail to your homestead. It was also our Christmas dream book when we were kids. Maybe they need to return to their roots or maybe we do.
Interesting. Just yesterday I was up at a local (outside) mall about 35 miles away. There was a Sears store. I saw 1 (one) car pulled up next to the store. One.
Sears lost me when they outsourced their card to some 3rd-party fee-generating outfit in the late 1990’s. Almost never bought anything there again. Shafting your customers is a stupid business model (see Blockbuster - didn’t use them after 1994). Of course, they were going to go down anyways.
Why should I drive across town to the pet store to buy 30 lbs. of high quality dog food when I can order it online with free shipping to my front door for a little more than 1/2 price?
Like your never near the store in the first place move about if better for you what else are you doing watching TV.
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