The headline has changed, presumably because the story has changed, so we've updated the title above. Originally it was "Sears plans to shutter after 126 years in business".
Media manipulation is likely at hand.
Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
501–510 of 568 posts
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#502Sears 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 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…
> I think this is especially relevant here on HN because it shows how startups are required to solve problems.
that's quite a leap. and i don't see how that follows from what you've said.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#503[deleted]
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#504Ahh, I came to this thread far too late, but hopefully this won't be missed. In 1980 The Yankee Group (a tech consultancy) reached out to my dad to help them understand how Sears could respond to the growing tech phenomenon. For reasons too long to get into, Gates and my pops (a Canadian) knew each other and were even both covered in The Intelligent Machines Journal out of Palo Alto in the same issue during the wanin…
60 minutes interview with a young Jeff Bezos, 1999
https://youtu.be/VuI-ss5aQU8?t=629
"how do you view that phenomenon [laugh] that Amazon is worth more than Sears!? [condescending laugh]"
"a couple of geeks [laugh laugh], who sketched out some software, could destroy Sears Roebuck [laugh]"
same 60 minutes "expert", telling young Bezos, Amazon stock was wildly expensive
https://youtu.be/dTxuzW9RAO8?t=20
"Amazon is worth more than a major industrial company, like Texaco ... that didn't blow your mind?"
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#505Every time I think of sears I think of this story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHIktR-3Ci4 where they stole someone's wrench design
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#506When Sears, the Facebook of its era, launched its IPO in 1906 the catalog was the Internet of the day
https://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-per-flash-sears-ipo-0513-2...
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Very good points. I'd like to add that Amazon began in a time when the typical person didn't trust ANY online shopping options. To my recollection, Amazon and eBay were the two biggest players that found ways to give people confidence that they could safely shop online.
Great observation. I remember eBay and PayPal’s partnership being extremely important in making people feel protected. As I recall, there was well-advertised buyer protection by using them. Good feedback systems for buyers and sellers in both cases have proven a valuable asset.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#508The headline has changed, presumably because the story has changed, so we've updated the title above. Originally it was "Sears plans to shutter after 126 years in business".
Media manipulation is likely at hand.
Or there was a last minute reprieve after the article was posted.
Not everything is malicious, friend.
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#509Sears 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 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.
I've never understood this line of thinking. I worked in engineering at Sears, and I left the company in 2000. So I was there when Amazon was getting big, and I quit Sears to go work for a company in Redmond Washington.
Sears just didn't have the engineering manpower. When I'd wander around the Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates, I saw tons of people working on marketing, clothing, and advertising. There weren't a whole lot of people working on the Sears website.
From my perspective, in 1999 our engineering team was mostly concerned with whether the cash registers worked (Sears was ahead of the curve when it comes to the sophistication of their registers) and whether customer service worked (we had over five thousand customer service representatives working out of a series of Regional Credit Card Operation Centers AKA RCCOCs.)
Competing with Amazon isn't trivial; even in 1999 Amazon employed thousands of people.
More importantly, Amazon lost a ton of money to get where it is today. In 1999, Amazon lost something like thirty cents on every dollar that they sold.
As someone who actually worked at Sears, it's inconceivable to me that Sears could have stomached the idea of losing that kind of money. And I don't see any scenario where they'd make the kind of investment in people, even if they could find them.
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/business/amazon-s-risky-c...
Re: Sears has another chance to avoid closing down
#510Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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.