Goodbye Sears, it's been a hellava run

[Sheik Yerbouti]

It looks as though the demise of B&M Sears stores is inevitable. They used to be a staple of America, basically, "where America shops"
But over the past decade or so they've fallen on extremely hard times. They're closing stores left and right, and the merger with Kmart was just inane (imo).
Sears, Roebuck & Company started out in the late 19th century and was THE go to catalog for nearly everything that wasn't perishable.

Hell, they even sold cars

The Sears Christmas Wish Book was something I looked forward to every year as a kid growing up in the 60's/70's.

The world has changed, dramatically, and unfortunately, Sears never kept up. My father was employed by Allstate as a statistician, so I think I may have a special place in my heart for Sears (Sears owned Allstate Insurance).

Ok, enough opinion, here's the actual news:
money.cnn.com/2014/05/15/news/companies/sears-store-closings/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

"They have too many stores and they're losing a lot of money, burning cash," said John Kernan, an analyst with Cowen.
Kernan expects the company to close 500 of its 1,980 U.S. stores in a few years and, ultimately, to go out of business.

"The lights are going off at Sears and Kmart," he said. "There are tumbleweeds blowing through the parking lots at Kmart. They're basically completely irrelevant."
The company won't comment on store closings, but CEO Edward Lampert reportedly told shareholders at this month's annual meeting that "closing stores are going to be part of our future. The world has shifted." A company spokesman did not dispute that quote.

 

[alzan]

It looks as though the demise of B&M Sears stores is inevitable. They used to be a staple of America, basically, "where America shops"
But over the past decade or so they've fallen on extremely hard times. They're closing stores left and right, and the merger with Kmart was just inane (imo).
Sears, Roebuck & Company started out in the late 19th century and was THE go to catalog for nearly everything that wasn't perishable.

Hell, they even sold cars

The Sears Christmas Wish Book was something I looked forward to every year as a kid growing up in the 60's/70's.

The world has changed, dramatically, and unfortunately, Sears never kept up. My father was employed by Allstate as a statistician, so I think I may have a special place in my heart for Sears (Sears owned Allstate Insurance).

Ok, enough opinion, here's the actual news:
money.cnn.com/2014/05/15/news/companies/sears-store-closings/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Analysts have been known to be wrong. I don't disagree that Sears has had quite a few rough years as of late but I do take issue with the statement that they will ultimately close. Closing unprofitable stores is a reality for any brick and mortar business.

"Tumbleweeds blowing through the K-Mart parking lots" - not around here (St. Louis, MO). It's all about location and the strength of the regional economy.

I too hold a special place in my heart for Sears catalogs, particularly the women and girls underwear section.

 

[Newell Steamer]

B&Ms are great,.. but, there isn't much point in them today. They are over priced and nothing more than floor shows.

I still see clothing, supermarkets and car dealers going strong. But, for the most part, I buy online.

 

[werepossum]

When Sears merged with Kmart and Kmart management took control of the combined company - even though Kmart was in bankruptcy at the time - the death knell sounded for Sears. How does one come back from the stupidity of handing control to management of a company in bankruptcy? I liked Sears, but Kmart sucks ass and has for decades.

 

[Mursilis]

"Tumbleweeds blowing through the K-Mart parking lots" - not around here (St. Louis, MO). It's all about location and the strength of the regional economy.

The regional economy around me (DC Metro area) is strong enough that Target, Kohl's, Wal-mart, Sam's Club, B.J.'s, JCPenny's, and Costco are all within 10 miles of my home, as is K-Mart. And the K-Mart parking lot is indeed a ghost town, despite the fact K-Mart opened years earlier, well before all those other stores. I'm surprised the K-Mart is still open, and I expect it to close any day now.

 

[K1052]

This should have started several years ago. They've burned through a mountain of cash maintaining unprofitable locations.

 

[Jimzz]

The current CEO Edward Lampert, one of the main people behind the merger, is just hacking the company into pieces and selling off as much as he can. If you own stock in sears dump it now or vote to remove him.

Sears still has a lot of good will but they don't invest in their own company and are running what's left into the ground. Edward Lampert is more worried about him self and not the company. They need a new outside CEO to take over and update sears and bring up its strength's.

 

[Genx87]

Analysts have been known to be wrong. I don't disagree that Sears has had quite a few rough years as of late but I do take issue with the statement that they will ultimately close. Closing unprofitable stores is a reality for any brick and mortar business.

"Tumbleweeds blowing through the K-Mart parking lots" - not around here (St. Louis, MO). It's all about location and the strength of the regional economy.

I too hold a special place in my heart for Sears catalogs, particularly the women and girls underwear section.

Sears has been dying for 20 years. Finally seeing the end game with their poor business plan.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I only have a few gripes with Kmart. I'd prefer to shop there over Target or Walmart because the parking lots ARE more empty. I can walk in and out far more quickly and park closer! My gripe with Kmart has been the same for the past 10 years. They simply fail to price their products and carry old inventory. I don't know how many times they'll move a whole shelf of whatever fabric softener or toilet paper or whatever to another location in the store and forget to CLEARLY mark the price of the items. Call it laziness, but I've seen this at multiple stores in different cities in years past.

My only other comment about Kmart was that I had a Christmas return a few years ago. I was standing in the customer service line (also the only place you can buy cigarettes in the store). I was like 6-7 customers back and realized I was the only person standing in line that was there to return merchandise and not to buy cigarettes....AND the only one in line NOT wearing sweat pants.... That kind of sums up the typical clientèle in Mart de K.

 

[cubby1223]

The KMart in my town was the only department store in town for the longest time, and they purposefully mismarked prices on the shelf, the checkout process took a long time because all shoppers had to memorize the shelf-price of every item and price-check at least half of them at checkout. We were ecstatic when Wal-Mart built a location here! The KMart went under soon after.

The two nearest Sears locations to me are ghost-towns, even during Christmas season no one is shopping there. Why? I don't know. I don't see a reason to shop at Sears. There are a wider range of specialty stores that provide better products and better service than one giant catch-all store.

 

[glenn1]

Retailers come and go. We survived just fine when Woolworths' went tits up, ditto for Ames, Bradlees, Caldor, etc etc etc. I won't miss Sears or K-Mart, and won't be sad when J.C. Penney's finally dies also.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I remember anxiously awaiting the Wishbook every year and going through and circling everything I wanted. At least many are on the internet now:

http://192.185.93.157/~wishbook/

 

[Anarchist420]

there is probably going to be a bailout. i can understand why sears is going under and that's because their prices are too high

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I remember anxiously awaiting the Wishbook every year and going through and circling everything I wanted. At least many are on the internet now:

http://192.185.93.157/~wishbook/

Yeah, I remember wanting the sailor GI Joe when I was 8.

 

[Rakehellion]

Back in my day, we had Silo stores.

RIP

 

[Thebobo]

I bought my first commodore 64 at sears.

 

[OutHouse]

They are over priced

humm i just checked the dockers and haggar dress pants i buy at sears and compared the price to amazon and sears is 2 bucks more. Since sears is in the same shopping area we do our shopping in i would not call that 2 bucks higher price as being over priced.

 

[JManInPhoenix]

In 2050 will we be lamenting the demise of amazon.com?

 

[Wordplay]

Meh, I don't really shop at Sears or Kmart myself. I tried to purchase something from Sears was last year, but they wouldn't take anything off the floor model Olympic bench I wanted. Last one they had on hand and they couldn't order one for me.

Kmart, I just remember the diner they use to have in them. Stained glass and dark wood was the decor of choice.

 

[werepossum]

In 2050 will we be lamenting the demise of amazon.com?

If by some cruel miracle I'm still alive, pretty sure I'll be lamenting nothing more than my poopy pants.

 

[DrPizza]

Hell, they even sold cars

They used to sell houses. The central part of my house was a Sear's catalog house.

From 1908–1940, Sears, Roebuck and Co. sold about 70,000 - 75,000 homes through their mail-order Modern Homes program. Over that time Sears designed 447 different housing styles, from the elaborate multistory Ivanhoe, with its elegant French doors and art glass windows, to the simpler Goldenrod, which served as a quaint, three-room and no-bath cottage for summer vacationers. (An outhouse could be purchased separately for Goldenrod and similar cottage dwellers.) Customers could choose a house to suit their individual tastes and budgets. Sears was not an innovative home designer. Sears was instead a very able follower of popular home designs but with the added advantage of modifying houses and hardware according to buyer tastes. Individuals could even design their own homes and submit the blueprints to Sears, which would then ship off the appropriate precut and fitted materials, putting the home owner in full creative control. Modern Home customers had the freedom to build their own dream houses, and Sears helped realize these dreams through quality custom design and favorable financing.

 

[peonyu]

It looks as though the demise of B&M Sears stores is inevitable. They used to be a staple of America, basically, "where America shops"
But over the past decade or so they've fallen on extremely hard times. They're closing stores left and right, and the merger with Kmart was just inane (imo).
Sears, Roebuck & Company started out in the late 19th century and was THE go to catalog for nearly everything that wasn't perishable.

Hell, they even sold cars

The Sears Christmas Wish Book was something I looked forward to every year as a kid growing up in the 60's/70's.

The world has changed, dramatically, and unfortunately, Sears never kept up. My father was employed by Allstate as a statistician, so I think I may have a special place in my heart for Sears (Sears owned Allstate Insurance).

Ok, enough opinion, here's the actual news:
money.cnn.com/2014/05/15/news/companies/sears-store-closings/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

I still remember their Red light specials as a kid, where a spokesperson would come out and offer a ton of sells, followed by a stampede of customers showing up. They probably should have kept that going but Sears being Sears seemed to have been making bad decisions even then. Whats making them die at a rapid pace is that moronic idea to remove ALL sales from their items a year or two ago, and hoped people would realize that paying the actual sale price all the time would be good...To bad most of the public is rather derp and didnt get it, and so there went most of their customer base overnight. They should have seen that coming but then again that is Sears for ya.

Kmart was just a retarded idea to buy..Even in 2005 [or 6] it was outright stupid. They closed one recently around me, and for the past 10 years that it was open it was like having the store all to yourself walking through it.

 

[Fern]

The Sears here is just an appliance/lawn mower type store, but I like it.

I don't think they should have stopped with the catalogue. Big F'up IMO. Cabala's does great with theirs.

Fern

 

[fleshconsumed]

They used to sell houses. The central part of my house was a Sear's catalog house.

http://www.antiquehomestyle.com/plans/sears/1923sears/23sears-alhambra.htm

Yeah, you had to build them yourself though

 

[HTFOff]

Sears was mail order only in the early days.

They sold guns to your door until the passage of the 1968 GCA. They also sold firearms in stores until the late 80's.