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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

#51

Post by rhino369 »

mikestew wrote: post #36

Lampert might have "saved" AutoZone, which AFAICT was the feather in his cap to make him "the next Warren Buffert", but if you asked me I'd be hard-pressed to tell you how the shopping experience changed. I speak from ignorance, and the laziness that prevents me from researching deeper, but I assume he did some accounting tricks, sold a few inefficient assets, etc. But as the owner of some old vehicles and a frequent…

Rebuilding trust and brand value will take years or decades. Don't undervalue accounting tricks, reorganization, focusing on efficient assets, etc. Getting rid of dead weight is much more important than trying to reinvent the retail experience. You need to stop the bleeding first.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#52

Post by bluGill »

neurobashing wrote: post #25

My 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?

My grandparents shopped at Montgomery Wards. My Parents shopped at Sears. Both forgot how to make money and are gone. I wouldn't be surprised to see Amazon gone before Wal-Mart, but I don't expect either to be around in 200 years (note that medical science currently offers me little hope of living beyond either).

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#53

Post by tjr »

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.

A few years ago, the ancient (circa 1998) microwave in my house failed. I merrily trundled off to the local appliance store and bought a new one, and had them install it. Seemed to work, but eventually I realized it must be drawing too much electricity. Like something out of Green Acres, I had to limit what lights and other appliances were on in the kitchen if I wanted to use the microwave.

I had an electrician come out and look at it. He opined that, due to the way the house was wired, it would be a pretty major undertaking to fix the underlying problem. So I just went along with turning lights off when I cooked.

I finally sold the house, but couldn't pass this problem off to the next owner.

The only place I could find that still sold a microwave so old and feeble that it wouldn't overload my circuit, was Sears.

Thank you Sears! Hopefully I will never need that again, but I am thankful for your help.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#54

Post by tracker1 »

wombatpm wrote: post #5

Sears 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…

I remember them being in the single best position to do what Amazon did half a decade before Amazon was even a real thing. Even if they got their catalog online, searchable with images, and call in to finalize their orders, they'd have been ahead of the game.

They could well have done more optimizations with time... but they had no interest in the internet, and felt the web would be just another fad after Prodigy failed.

I knew it was the beginning of the end for Sears when they shutdown their catalog division and call centers. Just as the internet was ramping up and mail order was going to become huge.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#55

Post by ams6110 »

Zigurd wrote: post #38
wombatpm wrote: post #5

Sears 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…

There was an enormous Sears near where I grew up. It always felt shabby and badly run. They had lost the recipe even then, when they still had the catalog business. I get the impression from Sears and other big companies that lose their way that they become the playgrounds of big management egos that want to leave a mark and get written about in business publications, whether or not their ideas work.

Same experience. Sears was an anchor tenant at the local mall for decades. In that time they never did a significant rehab. When they finally closed a few years ago, it was still like stepping into the 1970s to shop there.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#56

Post by monetus »

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

What exactly are you arguing?

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#57

Post by ghaff »

csydas wrote: post #30
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…

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 b…

Sears is arguably a good example of how execution (and culture) often trump strategy. They were online. They invested in Prodigy. But their heart never really seemed to be in it and they never really changed the way they operated based on online.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#58

Post by Shivetya »

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…

I would not focus on one competitor. Sears sank themselves. They had everything, more so than JC Penny, but they were also heavily invested in mall locations which as the people spread out the mall orientation hamstrung them. Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, and more, were in strip malls everywhere and everywhere usually meant closer to you.

Sears could have put some of that aside with a better and stronger online presence but unless they decided to wholly shift to that medium they had to get out of the big monolithic type malls and into the more in number strip malls.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#59

Post by reaperducer »

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…

many of the long-time employees were making pretty decent money. Way more than people at Best Buy, Target or Walmart made. Plus actual benefits. The must have had huge legacy costs, especially at the higher levels.

There was an analyst on Bloomberg Radio last week or the week before who said the big reasons for Sears' demise were pension obligations, and store managers who didn't know how to manage stores or people.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#60

Post by zymhan »

ams6110 wrote: post #50
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.

The point isn't that they were too early, it's that they gave up too quickly. Buying online and picking up from a store really isn't that advanced of a concept.
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