Even without the physical locations, the Sears brand will likely persist through the Kenmore brand and Sears home services.
Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
21–30 of 568 posts
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#22All companies will eventually end, but it's crazy how big Sears was and how far they fell in a short time. At one point they were selling mail-order DIY houses!
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#23Sears had everything. Global supply chain, check. Top notch distribution operation, check. System and infrastructure to take orders and handling billing, check. Name recognition and established customer base, check. They threw it all away, ending catalog operations in 1993 a year before Amazon.com opened in 1994. They owned part of Prodigy in 1984! Yet somehow thought it was a better move to expand into bigger box re…
Those who are first will later be last for the times are changing... Is there anything people don't buy online these days?
>Is there anything people don't buy online these days?
Tons of stuff. [ADDED: e-commerce is 10% of retail in the US.] Ironically, especially in the categories that Sears was best known for selling. Major appliances, lawn equipment, home improvement generally, (to a lesser degree) clothes.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#24Neil Saunders wrote a good Twitter thread last week about how mid-scale US department stores don't execute the basics of retail very well: https://twitter.com/NeilRetail/status/1079785924966445058
Others have pointed out that Target seems to do a much better job with organization, presentation, and flow. Not coincidentally, it seems to be performing much better than legacy department stores that historically targeted the same class of shopper, like JCPenney and Sears.
Brick and mortar isn't as dead as commentators sometimes present it, but the increased competition is certainly weeding out dead wood that managed to persist for decades based on natural local monopolies and oligopolies.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#25My parents were young, and broke, and opened a Sears "charge card" to buy their wedding rings. "Craftsman, so it'll last forever!"
I mean, intellectually, I get why Sears is going away, but it still kinda tugs at the ol' heartstrings a little, you know?
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#26Sears is a company with a CEO and board that do not care. Their skin is fine if company goes bust.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#27Congratulations on driving a company into the ground! Have a golden parachute! https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sears-bankruptcy-court-oks-25-m...
[deleted]
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#28How much of Sears's demise was due to Walmart? It's not like retail completely died. The home improvement chains hurt them too, once they started selling tools and appliances. We bought everything at Sears in the 80's. Electronics (including computers), appliances, toys, clothes, tools, lawn and garden... Was Sears too 'friendly' with their suppliers? When I worked at Sears at the end of the 1990's (the store was a g…
It's a good example to those that claim companies should pay employees liberally. Unless you're in a niche that people are willing to pay a margin for or serve upscale customers who also don't mind paying margins (Costco, Whole Foods, Nordstroms, Apple, etc), then you're going to lose business to competitors offering lower prices. In this situation, the only way to improve the well being of those whose labor isn't as…
Another option is to force an increase in minimum wage which is what most people in those positions make. Not every company can afford to keep the same amount of staff on hand at that price so some people would be let go but it makes the remainder of people much more valuable.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#29How much of Sears's demise was due to Walmart? It's not like retail completely died. The home improvement chains hurt them too, once they started selling tools and appliances. We bought everything at Sears in the 80's. Electronics (including computers), appliances, toys, clothes, tools, lawn and garden... Was Sears too 'friendly' with their suppliers? When I worked at Sears at the end of the 1990's (the store was a g…
It's a good example to those that claim companies should pay employees liberally. Unless you're in a niche that people are willing to pay a margin for or serve upscale customers who also don't mind paying margins (Costco, Whole Foods, Nordstroms, Apple, etc), then you're going to lose business to competitors offering lower prices. In this situation, the only way to improve the well being of those whose labor isn't as…
Paying employees more is supposed to work because it results in employees who do their job better. It seems Sears just increased the pay without increasing the expectations. I avoid Sears because when I go, despite there being no customers, the place is a mess and I can't find anyone to help me.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#30How much of Sears's demise was due to Walmart? It's not like retail completely died. The home improvement chains hurt them too, once they started selling tools and appliances. We bought everything at Sears in the 80's. Electronics (including computers), appliances, toys, clothes, tools, lawn and garden... Was Sears too 'friendly' with their suppliers? When I worked at Sears at the end of the 1990's (the store was a g…
Sears also just wasn't able to get how to move its catalog online. My parents purchased a house that was mostly built with Sears appliances and furniture (cabinets, counters, etc). Ordering replacement parts from Sears was a chore; you were constantly moved around to tons of different domains, some of which weren't even made human readable; their inventory system was terrible, making it impossible to find the parts based on absolutely any serial or identifier included on the appliance itself.
Their warehouse and delivery was atrocious, first sending us the wrong stove top glass multiple times, then finally realizing they didn't have our model in stock and wouldn't for months. Months later, they sent us the top finally, but 3 of them. And then tried to ask us to pay to send the 2 they accidentally sent back.
Sears either never took the time to figure out how to use online or weren't interested. For a very long time, due to custom printing, you could get semi-permanent Sears URLs to rather vulgar images on shirts, pillows, blankets, etc.
They just weren't ready for online and didn't take the time to learn it. Once they finally got a site up and running, it was just too late.