271–280 of 568 posts
Sears died because of Lampert, that's the beginning and end of the story. While they were far from perfect, post-Kmart "acquisition" both the service and stores became garbage and he used Sears as a personal slush fund.
Congratulations on driving a company into the ground! Have a golden parachute! https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sears-bankruptcy-court-oks-25-m...
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Well, for the most part prosperity comes from work. After 40 hours a week of work, each extra 10% of time worked leads to something like 40% extra income. Those that do reach into upper management positions with larger corporations tend to have spent 15 years of 60-hour work weeks. I'm not saying that this is always the case, or that those are even the best priorities to have. But effort, success and wealth are defin…
Prosperity often comes from family/connections, and hard work definitely doesn’t guarantee prosperity.
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I thought this as well until I heard a counter-point [0] which was very convincing. The reason Amazon is successful is not because you can shop online (from a catalog) and receive items in the mail. The reason Amazon is successful is because you can do those things and receive your items within two days. Before Prime existed, Amazon had very quick fulfillment, and after Prime two-day it became even better. The Sears…
And Amazon's return policy. I remember specifically buying clothes from an online retailer a few years ago and when things didn't fit, I got charged a 10% restocking fee. I'd mostly bought from Amazon but decided to go outside the box. Sure enough, I went back to Amazon. When I lived in the UK, I discovered retail shop hours at 9 to 5, except Thursday and Saturday when you have to fight crowds. Also, things were more…
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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…
>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. I'm not sure I understand that, could you please elaborate? Are you saying that they provided custom printing, then some users printed vulgar images, and could pass on URLs for others to print another batch?
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TBH, I think there's a much better case to be made for Sears doubling down on some of its core assets and creating Home Depot before Home Depot did. Its store footprints weren't right, which is no small thing. But they were already a significant home improvement and major appliance store. They probably had a window when it was clear that discount retailers (and some high-end stores) were the future of "department sto…
They literally had the best tools in the world - my dad swore by Craftsman, told me never to bother buying any other brand. Then they threw it away on a demonstration of Randian philosophy.
Sears died because of Lampert, that's the beginning and end of the story. While they were far from perfect, post-Kmart "acquisition" both the service and stores became garbage and he used Sears as a personal slush fund.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And Amazon's return policy. I remember specifically buying clothes from an online retailer a few years ago and when things didn't fit, I got charged a 10% restocking fee. I'd mostly bought from Amazon but decided to go outside the box. Sure enough, I went back to Amazon. When I lived in the UK, I discovered retail shop hours at 9 to 5, except Thursday and Saturday when you have to fight crowds. Also, things were more…
Hell sometimes Amazon doesn't even require a return. They will just say keep it and send out the one you actually wanted.
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I thought this as well until I heard a counter-point [0] which was very convincing. The reason Amazon is successful is not because you can shop online (from a catalog) and receive items in the mail. The reason Amazon is successful is because you can do those things and receive your items within two days. Before Prime existed, Amazon had very quick fulfillment, and after Prime two-day it became even better. The Sears…
While this is generally true, imagine if Sears had honestly realized their competitors potential and tried to compete. They had the country covered in stores and could have easily cut shipping times down by shipping from the nearest one. Their stores were also a hodgepodge of junk all randomly mixed, and they never made their store a desirable place to stroll.
Agreed that Sears never moved much beyond the 1970s in store layouts and merchandise display/organization.
Huh ... 126 years. I wonder if our children will ever see Facebook, Samsung, Amazon, Wal-Mart or Google fold one day. Sears is/was the Amazon of the 1920/20s. All things must pass eventually.