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Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

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Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#41

Post by RankingMember »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #16
bluedino wrote: post #11

How 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…

> It's a good example to those that claim companies should pay employees liberally.

Is it? Paying employees well isn't what killed Sears. Sears has been a ghost town for years, and anyone who's been in one in the past 20 years can probably tell you why. The customer experience simply sucks. Help is hard to find, checkout is slow, their warranties are garbage and a pain to exercise, and their once-great store brands have been either penny-pinched into mediocrity or sold off.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#44

Post by monetus »

hgq wrote: post #34
daveFNbuck wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Paying employees more is supposed to work because it results in employees who do their job better. I'm sure above certain threshold, which is probably low, raising wages doesn't make employees do their job any better. In other words, unless you pay your workers literally peanuts, they will do the same job more or less.

You meant figurative peanuts right? That is what a lot of people get paid in retail.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#45

Post by erikcw »

wil421 wrote: post #20
lotsofpulp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Costco is an upscale place to shop? I’ve never seen them lumped together with Whole Foods or even Apple. Edit: Wow I didn’t realize Costco’s profit margin was higher than Whole Foods, Wal Mart and almost a full percent above Kroger’s.

This was years ago so I don’t have a reference. But one of my business professors in college assigned a case study that contained the memorable (to me) stat that the average Costco shopper had a higher net worth than the average Nordstrom shopper. Something to do with small business owners vs people going into debt to look more affluent than they really are...

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#46

Post by vidarh »

ghaff wrote: post #23
Tsubasachan wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

All my major appliances were bought online. Amazon delivers home improvement services now (via partners) in some markets. These may be things that move online slower, but they to move.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#47

Post by [deleted] »

gammateam wrote: post #31
Forbo wrote: post #17

Congratulations on driving a company into the ground! Have a golden parachute! https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sears-bankruptcy-court-oks-25-m...

I get the tone of your post But have you considered that prosperity preaching is the bigger issue here? The idea that “success” = wealth or that they are correlated in any circumstance aside from coincidence, and that other combinations are part of a therefore broken system The reason I bring it up is because its a set of rules exclusive to lower socioeconomic groups, as opposed to a more effective set of rules

[deleted]

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#48

Post by ticmasta »

threatofrain wrote: post #4
arbitrage wrote: post #2

Eddie Lampert is a monster.

Not disputing the CEO is a force of destruction, but ought not some businesses close? What’s the place of Sears in the modern age?

dig into the back story; aside from the public challenges of a traditional brick&mortar retailer, Lampert actively accelerated it's downfall to enormous personal gain. He literally destroyed the business (let the retail stores fall into disrepair) while he sold off it's most valuable assets like the brands and milked it for cash as a major creditor.

He is a modern day robber-baron with none of the mystique or cachet that time has granted the railway and oil families; He's nothing more than a butcher (no offense intended to actual hard working butchers).

>> What’s the place of Sears in the modern age?

Sears was the original amazon from the analogue-internet days; they were well-poised before Lampert showed up and missed their chance.

There is still a huge amount of money in traditional retail and Sears could have owned a lot of the market that the Walmarts, Staples and Home Depots have moved into: bigger, high-ticket physical goods like appliances, home furnishings, gardening & outdoor living, even building supplies in package form.

I think they will go down in history as one of the great miss-steps of the modern age of retailing. From the defacto go-to for an entire continent to nothing.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#49

Post by gammateam »

superpermutat0r wrote: post #26

Sears is a company with a CEO and board that do not care. Their skin is fine if company goes bust.

In concept yes, but I dont think this deal will work out for the CEO’s hedge fund

He tried to take an activist position to create a market for the bonds he bought, and it failed.

Everything related to a nostalgic middle america mall space that also employed people is just irrelevant.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#50

Post by ams6110 »

ben1040 wrote: post #35

My first online shopping experience was with Sears over Prodigy in 1991. You could browse online, or order from the paper catalog (which is more likely what you'd do because NAPLPS graphics didn't lend themselves well, or at all, to product depictions). Then they'd ship to you, or you could go to the order pickup area at your local Sears store. They had a touchscreen kiosk there where you'd punch in your order number…

Being too early is as bad as being wrong.
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