Kmart and Sears suck

[badger]

I meant to start a discussion on this yesterday, but I was having too much fun advocating the devil in the Obama forum

Linky

I don't mind Sears, but they have seemed like a hodgepodge store for awhile now, trying to be a mini-Walmart while still impersonating a mall-like clothing store. We have appliances, but we also have name-brand apparel! You can buy four tires here, but you can also buy cheap shoes and boots! We're Sears! WTF is is our target audience?!?!

But oh man Kmart... they suck so badly that I'm surprised they have made it this long. Back in my rural Wisconsin area, there was no Walmart immediately, so we all shopped Kmart... but when the Walmart opened, everyone abandoned that dirty, crappy store that always seemed to have crap thrown everywhere, icky, broken tiles on the floors, and absolutely no sales associates anywhere to help you find anything.

So anyway, not a surprising move in the least that they're closing stores. I don't know how this will impact Oklahoma, but if anyone here has anyone that works at either place, hope all is well and your stores aren't among the closures.

[KantoSooner]

It's an apocryphal tale. Sears in my youth was a behemoth. A setter of retail business trends. As with most business problems, I think this one can be laid off to extremely bad(and complacent) management.
Mr. Sam done come along and took their lunch money away.

[OULenexaman]

what else would you expect from Illinois??

[Scott D]

What you likely don't see in that badger are two major factors.

The current owner of Sears Holdings (a misnomer, K-Mart was the one who purchased Sears, however they kept the Sears name as a way of being more investor friendly due to perception) isn't someone with a background in retail. This individual had success with "saving" one of the major auto parts store chains, and attempted to use the same methodology with both Sears and K-Mart. That strategy backfired on him bigtime as there's a vast difference in how mechanics and diy car guys care how a store looks so long as they have the parts they want when they want them, and Jane Public who does care about how a store appears (in general).

That being said, it's Sears that has been the money pit of the two for the better part of this decade, especially the last few years. To give you an idea of how bad things have gotten, in 2009 Walmart spent 10x the revenue that Sears Holdings earned on updating and building new stores. At this point, the largest problem for Sears Holdings has been that they're attempting to market two store brands to two different markets and that is causing them to spend 3 to 4 times more on advertising than they need to. On a quarter by quarter basis Sears is deeper in the red by a wide margin (retail numbers speaking) than K-Mart is, actually K-Mart is pretty close to breaking even, while Sears' red ink gets bigger and bigger.

What you see right now is the tip of the iceberg so to speak, and I'm in the same boat with a lot of financial analysts that believe that by the mid to late 4th quarter of 2012 Sears will cease to exist as a store entity, and the Craftsman and Kenmore lines will be more prominent in K-Mart stores than they are now. It shouldn't impact Oklahoma very much as there aren't very many K-Mart stores there, however the impact will be felt primarily in the upper midwest. With Sears the impact will be more wide spread, but to be honest, the concept of indoor/mega malls is dying as well, and you're going to see more stand alone/shopping center stores that you've been used to seeing in malls. JcPenneys has led the revolution on that one because they put a retail guy in charge to turn things around there.

[badger]

To Kmart's benefit, it was really, really cool to see the stories around the holiday season of shoppers, mostly anonymous, coming to stores and paying off layaway tickets for customers that had mostly childrens items on the layaway account (toys and such). There were a lot of stories of families that had fallen on rough times worried that their kids would not get the Christmas they had laid away (layed away?) at Kmart, only to get a call from the store that was like "Um, some secret Santa just paid off your account. Come pick up your stuff!"

I might be mistaken, but I seem to think that Sears was one of the dum dum holdouts on not opening on Thanksgiving night and instead waiting till 5 a.m. Friday. If retail has shown us anything, it's not to let your competition get ahead of you, but rather, to get ahead of the competition. You're opening at 10 p.m.? Well sheeeett, we're opening at 9:30!

[Scott D]

To Kmart's benefit, it was really, really cool to see the stories around the holiday season of shoppers, mostly anonymous, coming to stores and paying off layaway tickets for customers that had mostly childrens items on the layaway account (toys and such). There were a lot of stories of families that had fallen on rough times worried that their kids would not get the Christmas they had laid away (layed away?) at Kmart, only to get a call from the store that was like "Um, some secret Santa just paid off your account. Come pick up your stuff!"

I might be mistaken, but I seem to think that Sears was one of the dum dum holdouts on not opening on Thanksgiving night and instead waiting till 5 a.m. Friday. If retail has shown us anything, it's not to let your competition get ahead of you, but rather, to get ahead of the competition. You're opening at 10 p.m.? Well sheeeett, we're opening at 9:30!

If Sears did that it wouldn't surprise me. To be honest, the company has given up on Sears mostly, and a majority of these store closings will be Sears or Sears Essentials (rebranded K-Mart locations with all sears products). And good call on the Secret Santa stuff, because of one location in the country screwing up, Walmart ended up with a brief black eye over that.

Then again, if you own two similar businesses and one is losing money at a rate of roughly 10% a quarter, and the other is losing at 4.5% a quarter, it's easier to see if you took the money from the first one and invested it into the second while liquidating the first, the second will actually turn a profit. This people is what will happen to Sears and K-Mart in that order.

[Wishboned]

To Kmart's benefit, it was really, really cool to see the stories around the holiday season of shoppers, mostly anonymous, coming to stores and paying off layaway tickets for customers that had mostly childrens items on the layaway account (toys and such). There were a lot of stories of families that had fallen on rough times worried that their kids would not get the Christmas they had laid away (layed away?) at Kmart, only to get a call from the store that was like "Um, some secret Santa just paid off your account. Come pick up your stuff!"

Part of me thought that was really cool, and it semi restored some of my lost faith in humanity.


The other part wondered how many people will put their junk on layaway next year in the hopes that someone will pay it off.

[soonerboy_odanorth]

Sears shot themselves in the foot a long long time ago. When they gave up their direct to consumer strategy (i.e. the catalog) they gave up their unique hold on the market as a retailer that differentiated them. ("Oh... don't see what you are looking for on the floor? Let's see if we carry that... Oh... Here it is... we can have that for you here in the store or delivered to your home by next week.") Had they not, they could have been in a position to transition the paper to teh innerwebs before everyone else came along.

That is... it is the same ol story... they didn't stay relevant.

[badger]

Part of me thought that was really cool, and it semi restored some of my lost faith in humanity.


The other part wondered how many people will put their junk on layaway next year in the hopes that someone will pay it off.

Like a lottery of sorts, yeah, that thought crossed my mind too... I guess it will depend on the economy. There's always the risk of losing out though... restocking fee, the down payment required, etc.

[hawaii 5-0]

I shop at Sears, K Mart and Walmart. I'd be sad to lose either Sears or K Mart.

5-0

[A Sooner in Texas]

If there is a silver lining in this, it's that the Kardashian clothing line also, hopefully, will disappear.

[delhalew]

I love to buy stuff on the Sears card, and pay it off before interest can kick in. We don't have a Lowes or Home Depot. Sears is it for appliances and such, unless you want to get straight up raped.

[Soonerfan88]

My old town had incorporated the Sears corner into the local KMart right after the merger as the big Sears had already closed. They basically just sold Kenmore & other appliances in there with the sales staff on commission. A Craftsman aisle was also added to the automotive dept and everyone was happy.

My new place has a decent KMart and then a mini Sears store across the street that sells appliances, electronics, and tools. They are probably getting ready to combine here also as I noticed a For Sale sign recently popped up in front of the Sears location.

[KsSooner]

I went to a KMart today for the first time in years. Thought it looked like the inside of a Walmart, 25 years ago.

[badger]

They posted a partial closing list on the Sears corporate site today. So far, none in Oklahoma listed. You can see the current list here.

Like someone mentioned earlier, it seems to be more Sears than Kmart getting closed.

[OULenexaman]

No more Sears for Lawrence KS.......what will all the gayhawkers do now??

[badger]

No more Sears for Lawrence KS.......what will all the gayhawkers do now??

Pay off Turner's contract

[SanJoaquinSooner]

Before there were malls, there were Sears and Wards. Kinda obsolete, like hard-copy catalog shopping.

K-Mart = For those who don't have a ride to Walmart.

[KantoSooner]

They'll go stay with TG&Y and Gibson's in limbo.

[Jacie]

Sears was in trouble as far back as the 70's and managed to stave off total collapse then through consolidating stores and going exclusively with locations in malls. Remember the stand alone Sears store at 23rd and Penn? It was one of the closures back then. My then gf made the transfer from that store to the one that had just opened in Quail Springs Mall. In what I considered to be a real horseshizz move on Sears part, not long after, she was let go mere months before reaching 10 years of service and thus getting vested into the company retirement plan. I always wondered if other Sears employees experienced the same fate.

Anyway, they are the last big retailer left at the local mall here and if they go down, they might as close the place.