Noonan

I love how often people blame Amazon for these stores closing. Their absolute lack of awareness to their own business is what's killing them off. Sears did NOTHING to modernize themselves over the years. And if you had to point to a competitor which was the "reason" it would be Walmart and Target, not Amazon.

thetao

I still buy stuff at Sears. After getting store brand jeans from Kohls and JCPenny and having them fall apart in about a year, I tried Sears and haven't looked back. I also get some jackets and shirts (athletic and casual button-up) when they go on clearance. Also nice quality. If every Sears store looked like it did in 1963 (candy stand, lunch counter, TV's, toys) I actually think they'd have more business than they do today. There aren't many places to get electronics anymore besides Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy, and if they could sell different brands, it would definitely generate some foot traffic. Ditto for toys. But I'm sure all of the above was jettisoned at some point to save money.

We have a regional chain of department stores here called Boscovs which may be the closest thing today to the full service department store of old. They still have a candy counter and as I walked by about a month ago, saw two older ladies making fudge. But even Boscovs dropped electronics.

BobO'Link

I'd blame their being purchased by KMart as the primary reason they've failed. The Sears store here was quite presentable and good - until a couple of years after the KMart acquisition. At that point they began to look, and behave, more and more like the local KMart. Clutter in all isles, overpriced junk on the shelves, no help to be found anywhere, advertised items either not being in stock or only having a handful that sold out early. KMart killed Sears.

lokin4areason

i would agree, at buying Kmart .... usually its a hit or miss tactic
they thought it would ve helped with additional income but it did the opposite, imo

Abob Teff

That is reason enough for me to not set foot in their stores this year.

Run it into the ground, bleed it dry, get mine, and get out. Something has to change in the business/CEO culture.

Abob Teff

I think I agree. I believe there still is a place for the department store of old, especially as we live in a nostalgic society.

You look at a store like Scheel’s and they are essentially a specialty department store. They market themselves as a sporting goods store, but they have a clothing section, a toy section, shoes, a cafe, a candy store, a FERRIS WHEEL and those marvelous aquariums! They are a regional draw for the cities that have them, almost as much tourist attraction as retail.

Add to that the secret that I believe is the key ... they are privately owned. I’ve failed on this in other threads, but a publicly-traded company gets too focused on shareholders and starts to discount customers as a liability.

Bluelitespecial

So Eddie Lampert wants to buy Sears for $4.6 Billion dollars. I don't get this move unless he wants to shutdown the business all together. That seems like the only way he would make any money.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sears...CKml9bYR6DNXl8

Bluelitespecial

I don't know if this is really news, but tomorrow is the deadline for any company or investors who wants to bid on Sears stores and the auction is supposed to be January 14th.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/busin...220-story.html

dvd-4-life

Is K-Mart still in business?

I haven't heard much about them lately.

Troy Stiffler

Yes.

They haven't been remodeled. They're like jumping into a time machine and going back 20 years. Before current graphic design, colors, and architecture updates.

Surprising amount of people still in the parking lots of those that are still open.

I believe their value has something to do with real estate. Either they have bottom-dollar leases, or they own the whole shopping center.

Maybe there is some bigger plan for them to recoup and stay alive. I'm not sure about that.

Troy Stiffler

My local Sears is closing. And it has had a sad half-illuminated sign for years. Surprised the mall association never pushed them to fix it.

Abob Teff

I have a $20 gift card that I got for Christmas, plus a $15 off $15 coupon for Sears.com. How do I place my bid?

Abob Teff

So, your local Sea is closing.

zyzzle

OK, so is there a need or desire to fill the void left by Sears, K-mart, Wards, et al?

Or will the robots just do our shopping for us on Amazon in the future so that we can party like it's the year 2525?

There is a nostalgia factor. Some ingenious person (or *private* entity) should soon cash in on it. A new "retro" chain of stores with $100m buildings and $10,000 pieces of merchandise that all our rich (ie, "the 1%") will go ga-ga on. Like they have for Elon Musk and his highbrow Tesla brand.

And the rest of us may fondly remember the halycon days of Sears circa 1960-70.

JoeySeven

Slowest death ever. But I think Mr. Lampert planned it that way.

And most of their employees see the writing on the wall,and do not give two shits.

Shannon Nutt

The K-Mart acquisition (and perhaps selling off their credit business to Citigroup) was the biggest mistake and their multiple attempts at re-branding were all disasters. At this point, it's just good riddance.

cultshock

Fucking die already Sears, holy shit!

Exactly, Amazon didn't kill Sears, Sears killed Sears through their own ineptitude and failure to adapt to a changing retail market. Honestly, right until the end (our local Sears closed up about a year ago) walking into their store was like walking back in time, and not in a good way.

Totally agree. When the ones in Canada were closing, they pulled the same shit with their employees, so I refused to step inside one ever again. I heard that their "clearance" closing sales were a joke anyway. Honestly, this chain just deserves to die, pull the plug already. Any investors that want to try to spend money on saving the Sears brand are out of their fucking minds.

story

Local paper just ran the story that Sears announced it's closing its anchor store at the Mall of America. They've been one of the four anchor stores since they opened in 1992, and lemme tell ya, that's a big piece of real estate in a mall that is still very busy. They've been talking about adding an indoor water park, this may be the footprint they need.

Abob Teff

They can even repurpose the sign! Drop the RS off and call it something like “The Indoor Sea”.

Josh-da-man

Sears was dying before Amazon.

Sears’ biggest hit came in the late 80s and early 90s when Walmart began expanding into rural America and those people had a physical store within driving distance where they could buy houseware items, clothes, and toys. That effectively destroyed their catalog business.

We’ve also seen a decline in shopping mall culture, where foot traffic is down and stores are turning over quickly. The rent on those “anchor stores” must be insane, so it’s not surprising Sears is taking a hit. Part of this is definitely Amazon and online shopping, but another part is a resurgance in independent retail shops fluorishing in revitalized downtown areas.

And, yeah, another part is Sears’ inability to modernize itself. It’s sort of like Radio Shack, where you’ll go there to buy something like vacuum cleaner bags, but it’s not somewhere you go to buy things you can buy somewhere else like clothes and electronics.

zyzzle

So now, they'll build an indoor water park and charge $100 per admission. Yes, a much more profitable use of that big anchor store. So people would rather pay $100 per kid (Oh! Hell, I'll be generous and allow that they *may* only charge $50 per kid) than shop at Sears. Back in the day it cost my parents $0 for me to be entertained for hours at the local Sears playing the latest 2600 games or watching other kids do the same. How times have changed!

OK, I'll agree (mostly) that Sears killed Sears. Amazon and Walmart played a part, though.

The death of the mall is an intriguing sociological study. In 50 years, it will be interesting to remember fondly going to a mall and strolling, window shopping, etc.... By then all the fun will be done as the robots will run our lives. And *we* will be at their beck and call.

Troy Stiffler

Turning a closed Sears into an indoor water park actually sounds like a great idea. That sort of entertainment and experience is what's selling now - moreso than buying stuff at department stores. I think there's a big shift coming to that ownership of possessions. It could be the next big thing that economists should pay attention to.

The Cow

Yeah, at one of the closed Sears stores here, they are putting in a trampoline park.

fujishig

Not sure what point you're trying to make: when's the last time you shopped at Sears?

fumanstan

The Sears at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa here in Orange County is closing too. I'm surprised it's been there for so long, since that mall has turned into one of the richest and affluent malls in the country and has felt out of place for a couple decades.