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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

#341

Post by hnbroseph »

bpicolo wrote: post #219
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be snarky, but there needs to be a name for selective amnesia when an idea that seems obvious in retrospect is ignored later on. In this case, the thing that made Amazon so great, before Prime existed, was that it had the "Things you might also like" section. AFAIK it was one of the first online stores that used machine learning to recommend new and related items you didn't realize you wanted and to have user…

Is that really a primary growth factor? I've never once acted on an Amazon recommendation, and it's always felt almost entirely useless - "you just bought a vacuum, here's 15 more vacuums just in case you're a vacuum-obsessed lunatic"

> I've never once acted on an Amazon recommendation

i have!

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#342

Post by Yhippa »

filmgirlcw wrote: post #283
acdha wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a significant gap between Amazon launch and having two-day shipping — it took years of behind the scenes development before orders started arriving notably faster than other retails. Sears' numbers include regular postal delivery in both directions so switching to online ordering would have cut them in half with no other changes (and don't forget the efficiency wins from orders arriving as validated electro…

The pricing benefit really cannot be understated. Amazon was 40% less than list for books -- which was a massive amount, even if you lived in Barnes & Noble markets (and B&N wasn't as pervasive in 1996/1997 as your average mall bookstore was), where there were similar markdowns. And of course, you could get any book you wanted from Amazon. And then Amazon very quickly moved into media like CDs and DVDs. I used to ord…

In the late 90's and early 2000's Amazon was one of the few online retailers I actually trusted to buy things from. It sounds crazy now but the concept of ordering online was not nearly as consistent and as safe as it is now.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#343

Post by ghaff »

mattkrause wrote: post #265
CoolGuySteve wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to be snarky, but there needs to be a name for selective amnesia when an idea that seems obvious in retrospect is ignored later on. In this case, the thing that made Amazon so great, before Prime existed, was that it had the "Things you might also like" section. AFAIK it was one of the first online stores that used machine learning to recommend new and related items you didn't realize you wanted and to have user…

The recommendations have never been the selling point for me. Instead, the thing that got me to use Amazon was that it provided you with access to a long tail of books—and later, other stuff. Bookstores and record stores did do "special orders", but there was a lot of friction in the process. You'd have to find out about the book, visit the store (twice!), and if what you wanted was even available, you would wait a f…

In a way, I miss the serendipity of browsing bookstores. There was a time when it was a circa monthly ritual to go into Harvard Square on a weekend (I think stores were mostly open on Sunday by then) and make my way through all the new and used bookstores as well as run other errands. But, really, although I still like going into a good bookstore now and then, having this vast collection of (however imperfectly) reviewed books that can be in my hands within a few days--or immediately via digital--is pretty magical.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#344

Post by twblalock »

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…

Sears would never have been able to compete with Amazon on prices because Sears needed to fund operations for a large number of retail stores and Amazon did not.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#345

Post by b0bby_tabl3s »

As a guy who spent many a Christmas season pouring over the full color catalog dreaming of what I wanted for Christmas and making a 'plan'.

Pouring over pages. Marking. Making a detailed list. Deciding what gifts would give me the most 'bang-for-the-buck' in play time vs impressing my limited friend base.

This is a monumentally sad moment in retail history. Many lessons to be learning from their mistakes.

Sad.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#346

Post by mark-r »

reaperducer wrote: post #295
mark-r wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is it that makes the real estate valuable though? A mall with a big hole in it doesn't seem like a good investment. If Sears couldn't make a go of it it's hard to see how anybody else could.

A mall with a big hole in it doesn't seem like a good investment. As specified in the comment, not mall locations. Those were rented from mall owners. But Sears had/had many many standalone stores. Many of those stores were built in urban neighborhoods at a time when city neighborhoods were thriving. Now those properties are gaining value again as more people move into cities. Also, the Sears Auto Care locations are…

I guess I've been living in the suburbs too long. Your comment reminded me of the perfect example, the store where my dad worked - a block away from the Minnesota State Capitol building.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#347

Post by CamperBob2 »

gotorazor wrote: post #260
gibolt wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Walmart is following this exact strategy right now. How are they doing?

Lately I've seen WalMart labels on stuff I've ordered from Amazon. Feels kind of surreal.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#348

Post by fireattack »

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…

>Global supply chain

I know you said "supply chain", but do Sears really have much presence outside the US?

I'm asking because I never heard of Sears before coming to the US. Might not be zero (I find there is Sears in Mexico at least), but definitely not strong compared to Walmart, Carrefour, etc.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#349

Post by mevile »

babygoat wrote: post #294
kickopotomus wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a golden parachute though. Those are retention bonuses being paid to management so that they don't lose their entire staff before they are able to liquidate remaining assets and close properly. Going out of business is a process. It is not some sort of overnight ordeal. Especially not for an organization as large as Sears.

That makes zero sense. How does management getting all that money keep their staff around? They'd use that money to pay the staff if that were true.

Imagine the company is closing stores in a month and all the executives and management stop going to work tomorrow. Who is closing the stores? Who is handling exiting the staff properly? You don't want police coming and putting chains around your store and staff just having nothing but chaos for a month. You'll end up people not showing up to work. The stores might be open or not. You might end up with looting.

You want an orderly exit, and they're incentivizing the management to help achieve this.

Investors and employees could attempt to sue individual executives for mismanagement of a business, but if you want the government to punish business executives for failing at business you're in the wrong economic system.

Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down

#350

Post by ghaff »

bluGill wrote: post #325
ghaff wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Note that Target stores have always been entirely owned by Dayton's department stores. Some years back they realized the department store was much smaller and changed the company name to Target but there was never a big shift, just lots of little shifts that turned the department store into the discount retailer.

Fair enough. My main point is that the fact that Sears once had a rather famous catalog business seems a fairly tenuous competence on which to base "They could have been Amazon." As you suggest, challenged as segments of retail are in general these days, Sears under different management could presumably have taken things in a number of different directions that wouldn't have resulted in it going bankrupt. Whether that meant Target, Home Depot, or some category that doesn't really exist today.
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