In the comments to Part 3 of Toys R Us, a tale of the Retail Apocalypse — Company Man, I promised “When I finish with Toys R Us, I’ll start a series on Sears.” Here it is.
I begin with CNNMoney reporting Sears is closing 63 more stores.
The company initially announced plans Thursday to close 72 stores, but pulled back slightly and released a list of only 63 stores slated for closing – 48 Sears stores and 15 Kmart stores, spread across 29 states. The company said the nine additional stores that it initially planned to announce would close will be evaluated further.
MarketWatch put these closings in context, at least for the short term.
Sears said Thursday it had closed 67 Kmart stores and 41 Sears stores during the 13 weeks ended May 5, and closed 303 Kmart stores and 123 Sears stores in 2017.
CNNMoney described the longer term trend.
The company closed nearly 400 stores during the past 12 months, and now has a total of 894 left, including the 63 slated for closure. The two chains had a total of 3,500 US stores between them when they merged in 2005.
CNBC takes the longest possible view in Sears: The Rise And Fall Of The Massive U.S. Retailer.
Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert admits his retail empire isn’t what he imagined it would become when he brought Sears and Kmart together 13 years ago. He had his eyes set then on being “the next Warren Buffett,” and Sears Holdings was supposed to be his Berkshire Hathaway, says one former top Sears executive. But Lampert’s strategy from the start was slashing costs to grow the bottom line, even if that meant not investing in Sears’ stores, the person explained to CNBC. Sears and Kmart were already lacking so many resources, namely investment capital to fend off online upstarts like Amazon, and an experienced bench of retail executives, so these early cuts took an enormous toll.
The video mentioned Sears selling off Land’s End and Craftsman. According to CNNMoney, the brand the chain will sell off next is Kenmore, its line of appliances. Lampert himself may end up owning it. That’s one way to strip the assets of the company he runs.
All of the above examined Sears and its issues from the air. I plan on presenting the view on the ground on Monday, when I will share three videos from Retail Archeology. Stay tuned.
Modified from Part 1 of Sears, a tale of the retail apocalypse at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.
I promise to alternate between music and booze in the tip jars to this series. Here is a post about the kind of music I plan on using: .Mallsoft: The Vacant Void of Vaporwave.
at least where I lived was that of a nearly-vacant store, except for the employees. The place seemed like it could be part of a set for an early-stage zombie apocalypse scene. Even against that reality, when the store began liquidating its merch, the people who worked there looked like they didn’t know what had hit them. And it sucked. They clocked in and did their jobs, but the folks supposedly taking care of the company turned out to be spectacularly bad at keeping it afloat.
Several years ago, I went to a huge Sears store in the NYC suburbs in search of a small air conditioner. I took an escalator up several floors, and noticed the following:
Midday/weekday-the store was almost deserted. Very few customers and almost no help. This in a huge and very busy shopping center. I stopped on one of the floors because I also needed a pair of jeans. The quality of the clothing was awful…like a Target store, maybe worse. Plus…in this huge store, I could barely find any workers.
I went on up to the appliances level.
Ditto. Plus, when I finally found a worker, he knew absolutely nothing about the various air conditioners on sale. I browsed for a while and then made my decision. Again…no workers. I walked and walked. Nobody on most of the cash registers. I finally found someone willing to let me buy the air conditioner, but it took five tries before we found a functioning computer!!!
The transaction was made, and I was told that my air conditioner would appear at the loading area behind the store. I drove my car to that place, found a worker and gave him my receipt. This went quite smoothly. Got the air conditioner into the car, drove home and installed it. It worked. Great.
Several days later I got a call from Sears.
“Mr. Gilroy, your air conditioner is ready for pickup.”
Had I wished to do so, I am sure that I could have gone there and collected a second air conditioner!!!
Is this any way to run a business?
Please!!!
No wonder it’s failing.
Whoever Eddie Lampert is…he’s an ex-Goldman Sachs hustler and a big investment player among other things…he’s not a retail guy. Mismanagement on that level…”cost-cutting,” they say…is a sure way to tank a business. Maybe that was his goal…just let it fall apart as long as he made max profit. A truly hostile takeover.
Nice.
It is now…
AG
another chapter of the retail apocalypse here in California – with a Sears connection also…
All Orchard Supply Hardware stores to close by year’s end
This follow-up article has more details, but the “why” is predictable vulture-speak.
Why Lowe’s is shuttering Orchard Supply Hardware
DAMN! I buy my grafting supplies from them.
75% of stores closed over 13 years. That’s incredible.
There were still lines on a weekend at the Sears near me a few weeks ago, but that’s because there were only 4 cashiers open in the entire store. The only things anybody was buying (including me) was cheap basic clothing. There were some people wandering around in other sections, but they seemed mostly like people looking for cheap air conditioning (it was hot, and in OC CA some residences don’t have A/C).
Cheap basic clothes were typically what I would stop by Sears. It was a convenient place to get Levi’s and basic t-shirts. Could get better deals on appliances elsewhere. The one thing that Sears used to be good at was service on appliances. First time I had a garage door opener problem, Sears’ contractors were on it. That service declined in the last three years. Once that was off the table, I started relying more on locals for those jobs.
Kid’s clothes too. They are going to either grow out of them or rip them anyway so no need to buy expensive.