And que the flawed comparisons to the wt in 3...2...
Sears has finally filed for bankruptcy
by _Morpheus 17 Replies latest social current
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Simon
Sears in Canada went bust a year or two ago. Hard to compete against the likes of Amazon and distribution centres but ironic that Amazon are now talking about branching out into having 5-star item stores. I guess Sears 2.0? But a lot of Sears problems seemed to be more than changing times. Some stores just seem 'broken' to me - they don't have the right product lines. Last time I visited BestBuy, they have tried to turn it into an Apple store, lots of fancy shelving, less choice of products and lots of the same thing repeated instead of real choice.
My and my youngest son visited the UK earlier this year and while there, he was trying to get hold of some limited-edition game controller that was hard to find in stock anywhere here in Canada.
On an off-chance, he finally got one and described this "amazing store" where you pick what you want from a book and then someone goes and gets it from storage and brings it to you. He really thought it was an amazing concept, better than Walmart or Amazon combined. It was Argos catalogue store.
I feel like the past is still the future (or vice versa).
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OneGenTwoGroups
Sad to see them go. Of course, musty smelling stores at poor performing malls was never a sustainable business model, which they've had since the 90s.
Edit: They haven't filed yet.
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NewYork44M
In the day (1960-70s) our family bought almost everything from Sears. Now, it has been years since I have gone into a Sears store. The last visit was only to find a restroom.
The demise of a dynasty like Sears is an example to other organizations that there is no guarantee of future success.
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NewYork44M
Sears, where America Shops (1976).
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ttdtt
On an off-chance, he finally got one and described this "amazing store" where you pick what you want from a book and then someone goes and gets it from storage and brings it to you.
We had those in NJ in the 70s and 80s - the all went out of business before 1990.
As a kid, they were fun and exciting. I got my first electronic calculator that way.
It was solar powered - super cool back then.
I still have it as a keepsake. -
_Morpheus
@onegen- they haven't officially filed but it is fait accompli.. the stock opened at a record low and they have begun talks with the necessary banks, its just a matter of waiting for the ink to dry.
its amazing to me that walmart and target are doing well but sears, with so much head start and brand power, couldnt change enough. They had the craftsman brand going for them and kenmore. They could have thrived had they been more willing to change.
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the girl next door
Sears sold Craftsman to B&D last year. B&D now supplies Lowes stores with Craftsman tools and has eaten up a lot of sales that previously went to Sears. Sears brought in a billion a year on Craftsman tools.
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_Morpheus
Wow, i had seen craftsman in lowes stores but didnt realize they had sold it off to black and decker. Stupid move. That was a cash cow.... and i wouldnt trust black and decker to keep the quality of craftsman.
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Simon
I think it's more mis-management than the concept of "stores selling goods" being bad. They made bad decisions and didn't change fast enough when they could. "We're big and don't need to change" is a bad attitude but executives often get paid whether they run a business into the ground or not - the Canadian management got big bonuses for their excellent work of destroying the company.