Thanks Globalist Elites.
Next up: GE and Apple.
Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
461–470 of 568 posts
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#462"The most important component of evolution is death. Or, said another way, it’s easier to create a new organism than to change an existing one. Most organisms are highly resistant to change, but when they die it becomes possible for new and improved organisms to take their place.
This rule applies to social structures such as corporations as well as biological organisms: very few companies are capable of making significant changes in their culture or business model, so it is good for companies eventually to go out of business, thereby opening space for better companies in the future."
— John Ousterhout, Stanford professor
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#463Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Here in Germany Amazon had books and later other products. Fast shipping came way later. And even now their shipping is not really that impressive. 2 days most of the time with prime. 2-3 days is normal for most stores
It's normal now, it wasn't normal 20 years ago when Amazon started here. They also had free shipping from the start, also very rare back then.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#464Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I know you said "supply chain", but do Sears really have much presence outside the US? Depends how you count it. Sears Canada had about double the number of stores per capita as Sears USA. By the end, they were mostly a separate corporate entity from Sears USA, and shuttered all their stores over a year ago.
Guess I should say outside North American.
As far as I can think of, the number of retailers with significant worldwide operations is very small. Costco and Walmart both have about 20% of their operations outside of North America. Uniqlo is 40% Japan, 30% PRC, 30% elsewhere. No real others come to mind.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#465Once, I believe it was in the late 90's, my wife showed me the cover of a business mag. It showed the CEO of Sears, and also a young guy with a messenger bag and a Misfits pin. "Sears", with an arrow pointing to the CEO. "Sears.com" with an arrow pointing to the youngster. The thing is, she knew that youngster, and he really did work at Sears, for their webstore. He wasn't the only guy, but it was apparently pretty c…
> Once, I believe it was in the late 90's, my wife showed me the cover of a business mag. It showed the CEO of Sears, and also a young guy with a messenger bag and a Misfits pin. "Sears", with an arrow pointing to the CEO. "Sears.com" with an arrow pointing to the youngster.
It was from Fortune in November 1999. Here's an image of the cover:
https://twitter.com/opinion_joe/status/998689983757209607
Better quality: https://backissues.com/cgi-bin/backissues.cgi?full/FU1999110...
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#466I last went to Sears a couple years ago for some vacuum cleaner bags. I hadn't been to Sears in years, but something was telling me that Sears was the place to go for vacuum cleaner bags. The vacuum cleaner salesman looked like he belonged in the waiting room in Beetlejuice, but he was very helpful, and he sold me an 8 pack of vacuum cleaner bags. He knew what type of vaccuum cleaner bag I needed before I had a chanc…
Well that sucks. [hahaha! get it? "sucks"? like vacuum sucks? hahaha] [ahem]
I so knew I was getting downvoted for that...
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#467Once, I believe it was in the late 90's, my wife showed me the cover of a business mag. It showed the CEO of Sears, and also a young guy with a messenger bag and a Misfits pin. "Sears", with an arrow pointing to the CEO. "Sears.com" with an arrow pointing to the youngster. The thing is, she knew that youngster, and he really did work at Sears, for their webstore. He wasn't the only guy, but it was apparently pretty c…
> Once, I believe it was in the late 90's, my wife showed me the cover of a business mag. It showed the CEO of Sears, and also a young guy with a messenger bag and a Misfits pin. "Sears", with an arrow pointing to the CEO. "Sears.com" with an arrow pointing to the youngster. It was from Fortune in November 1999. Here's an image of the cover: https://twitter.com/opinion_joe/status/998689983757209607 Better quality: ht…
Thanks! Your google-fu is better than mine, I admit it.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#468Earlier quoted context omitted.
Good thread, found it really interesting! I am processing some research on DICK's Sporting Goods, 750 stores and 90% are their core brand. I knew the reality was something along these lines but just didn't expect the % to be so small: "The Company's eCommerce sales penetration to total net sales has increased from 2.8% in fiscal 2010 to 10.3% in fiscal 2015."[1] It's certainly growing every year for them, easy to see…
Sport gear is very hands-on, so it makes sense to go into the store to choose your next running shoe / tennis racket / hunting rifle... instead of buying the wrong one online and having to return it.
Absolutely. And since they stock different brands, it's even more important to get the sizing right. I remember reading shoes and apparel made up a high portion of their gross sales.
In general, my experience is that the higher the price, the longer and more intense the buying cycle is. It's not ground-breaking to think that but I also think it will indicate the last retail stores to bend at the will of online demand: cars, boats, engagement rings, etc.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#469Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
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 word for "when an idea that seems obvious in retrospect" is "hindsight bias"
That's generally not a useful bias to base beliefs off of :)
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#470This headline is a bit like 'Man plans to crash after falling 126 stories'