Thread Number: 73110  /  Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
More Sears/kmart closings
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Post# 965748   11/3/2017 at 09:18 (2,337 days old) by washman (o)        

I'm willing to bet after a soon to be dismal holiday season, Sears Holdings will file Ch7 and close up shop for good.
More and more vendors are only delivering in a COD basis as Sears has pretty much tapped out all lines of credit it can access.


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Post# 965799 , Reply# 1   11/3/2017 at 12:51 (2,337 days old) by Iheartmaytag (Wichita, Kansas)        
Chapter 7 is personal bankruptcy

iheartmaytag's profile picture
A business will file Chapter 11. Under 11, a business can reorganize, like K-Mart did in 2005, or can be forced to totally liquidate if there is not a good reorganization plan, like Ward's did.



Post# 965826 , Reply# 2   11/3/2017 at 16:17 (2,336 days old) by CircleW (NE Cincinnati OH area)        

I see that the KMart in Hillsboro, OH is finally closing. It's about 25 miles SE of where I live, but not in an area I frequent.

The Blue Ash KMart closed two or three years ago, and has now been converted into a Kohl's store. It opened just a few weeks ago, but I haven't been yet.


Post# 965828 , Reply# 3   11/3/2017 at 16:35 (2,336 days old) by chetlaham (United States)        

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I think whats killing these places, especially Kmart, is the lack of modernization. The few Kmarts I know still in existence look like they are from the early 90s, even in 2017. Had Kmart renovated in the early 2000s and kept doing it, I think they would still be in business. Here is an interesting video on the subject:








As for Sears I would say in addition to little modernization customer service was also to blame. Refusing to let you pay until you opened a card, rude sales people and not enough staff were several things that stood out to me.


Post# 965833 , Reply# 4   11/3/2017 at 16:54 (2,336 days old) by washman (o)        

You're right Iheartmaytag, I got it mixed up. Would Ch 13 be business liquidation?

Post# 965841 , Reply# 5   11/3/2017 at 18:10 (2,336 days old) by petek (Ontari ari ari O )        

petek's profile picture

The liquidation of Canadian stores began in October and there's no deals to be had. All their merchandise was sold to a liquidator . First week was 20% off original prices, this week 25%..  More expensive than when Sears had their own sales.  No deals to be found yet idiots are in there buying the crap they could have got 2 months ago for less.   


Post# 965844 , Reply# 6   11/3/2017 at 18:18 (2,336 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie)        

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Sears was king when I was growing up. But all things must pass. It's very difficult for brick-and-mortar retail to compete with online shopping.

I'm sitting in an orchestra pit waiting for rehearsal to begin and so far I've ordered two black belts from JC Penney, six boxes of K-cups from Keurig, non-foaming shave gel and filters for the Clear 2 O water pitcher from Amazon, 3 pairs of pants from Dockers and brushes for my face cleaning gizmo from Clarisonic. All of it will be delivered within a few days.

The only things I buy from brick-and-mortar establishments these days are groceries, appliances and cars. So yes, I am part of the problem. Again, it's hard to beat online shopping---especially when you live in the middle of nowhere.


Post# 965857 , Reply# 7   11/3/2017 at 20:12 (2,336 days old) by appnut (TX)        

appnut's profile picture

Two years ago I ordered my dishwasher form Sears online--they delivered installed.  Sears got it to me faster than the comparable KitchenAid from HD or Lowes (as well as local firms) and had a big sale on the model I wanted.  I've ordered pantry items from HEB twice in the last year that were things I need they no longer carry in my store when they had two specials on shipping.  When I got my new range in May, I ordered the initial complete set on Amazon and additional pieces from BB&B with gift cards and more from Amazon with Discover Cash Back I'd been saving up as well as some Amazon gift cards.  HEB has pulled more items I need for my diet and have be3en able to obtain comparable items from Walmart--coupled with free shipping above $35 in merchandise, cheaper than HEB.  Replenished all my laundry & dishwashing supplies for the year through Walmart.  Just got some new winter house shoes from Amazon last week.  Not being able to drive at night or out of town, online ordering makes it much easier for me. 


Post# 965937 , Reply# 8   11/4/2017 at 08:10 (2,336 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
I doubt it matters

how good or poor holiday season sales are. They've revived a Christmas Wishbook.
More likely as a museum memorium.
I've seen it happen several time with chains. Few by few, they close until all gone. It's just taking longer because there were so many stores.
One food chain here in the mid 80's liquidated following crooked operating shenanigans. The accountant appointed to close and or sell off the stores ended up committing suicide after he realized how many hardships were caused by all the job losses. He was only 32. The chain was Chatham foods. After the Wiseburg family owners retired, it happened. Their top executives were selling goods to Kissel brothers foods of Flint and skimming the money.
There may be a Wikipedia article on it, not that it is all accurate.
Both chains were union, and in those says those jobs paid pretty good.
I doubt the Sears and K Mart closings will have a drastic effect on household survival like those jobs back then did.

There is one family owned chain in the east left, and known as the best to work for. Wegman's based in Chile NY.
In southern California, Stater bros. is still there with 169 stores, but I don't know if the family still owns it. Ralph's is owned by Kroger. Vons may have also been sold. Albertson's at least also is competition for Kroger in the region.


Post# 965938 , Reply# 9   11/4/2017 at 08:11 (2,336 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
I doubt it matters

how good or poor holiday season sales are. They've revived a Christmas Wishbook.
More likely as a museum memorium.
I've seen it happen several time with chains. Few by few, they close until all gone. It's just taking longer because there were so many stores.
One food chain here in the mid 80's liquidated following crooked operating shenanigans. The accountant appointed to close and or sell off the stores ended up committing suicide after he realized how many hardships were caused by all the job losses. He was only 32. The chain was Chatham foods. After the Wiseburg family owners retired, it happened. Their top executives were selling goods to Kissel brothers foods of Flint and skimming the money.
There may be a Wikipedia article on it, not that it is all accurate.
Both chains were union, and in those says those jobs paid pretty good.
I doubt the Sears and K Mart closings will have a drastic effect on household survival like those jobs back then did.

There is one family owned chain in the east left, and known as the best to work for. Wegman's based in Chile NY.
In southern California, Stater bros. is still there with 169 stores, but I don't know if the family still owns it. Ralph's is owned by Kroger. Vons may have also been sold. Albertson's at least also is competition for Kroger in the region.


Post# 965939 , Reply# 10   11/4/2017 at 08:13 (2,336 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
Um, I didn't

double post. page was stuck in a loop.

Post# 965945 , Reply# 11   11/4/2017 at 08:39 (2,336 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)        

I think Sears and Kmart are largely irrelevant now unfortunately. People don't have much of a high opinion of them in general, and they certainly aren't high on the holiday shopping list. I suppose Sears' appliance department still does fairly well, given Kenmore is still reviewed by several websites and other organizations.

But with so many appliance options these days - Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, and smaller appliance stores, there are many options to compare. Same with the tool department.

And most people seem to buy clothes elsewhere.

Kmart allowed themselves to get overtaken by Walmart by not updating and expanding their stores when Walmart got big. And now there's Target and Kohls.

At this point I don't know that Sears and Kmart would be a huge loss, shopping wise, given the popularity of Amazon, which seems to be basically the modern catalog shopping.

One can go in Sears or Kmart and only see a few employees, usually one at jewelry, maybe one at another clothing dept counter, one in shoes, one or two in appliances and a couple in tools. That's about it. I started noticing their cutbacks and unmanned checkout counters around 2008 or so. Maybe it started earlier, but it seemed before that when multiple checkouts open was the norm.

I can remember when Kmart was so busy they had three lanes open on any given day and at one point tried self checkouts. Plus at least one checkout open in the garden center. Now, it's just the customer service counter and maybe one garden center lane open at peak times. And the garden center probably has very few plants if any by now.

One can find deals at Sears on clearance items. A few weeks ago I saw a Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer, display model on sale for $99. Housewares and vacuums can have some pretty good deals when items are returned or old displays.


Post# 965953 , Reply# 12   11/4/2017 at 09:11 (2,336 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)        

Well, it's official, our local Kmart got the ax in this last go round. Even sadder, is it was supposed to be one of the best performing stores in the state, shows how bad it must be now... Even though I didn't go there often anymore, it will be missed.

Post# 966010 , Reply# 13   11/4/2017 at 16:07 (2,335 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)        

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Our KMART is still surviving...barely. It's still the closest of the big 3 (as it seems to be for the inner ring suburbs in most of the midwest). Read that some of the nicer/more successful stores are closing due to their 20-25 year leases expiring.

Post# 966048 , Reply# 14   11/4/2017 at 20:50 (2,335 days old) by cornutt (Huntsville, AL USA)        

The K-Mart in Albertville, AL will close after Christmas. This is the last K-Mart remaining in Alabama.

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Post# 966073 , Reply# 15   11/4/2017 at 22:18 (2,335 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)        

That 25 year lease ending is interesting as our Kmart that is closing is just now 25 years old, yet I didn't hear that cited as the reason. It makes sense though.

Post# 966086 , Reply# 16   11/4/2017 at 22:54 (2,335 days old) by polkanut (Wausau, WI )        

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I suspected the end was near for the K-Mart in Stevens Point, WI when I was there 2 weeks ago.  I stopped to pick up a new clock radio for our guest bedroom because they only had one brand , and only one model on the shelf.


Post# 966124 , Reply# 17   11/5/2017 at 05:58 (2,335 days old) by joeypete (Concord, NH)        

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The stores in NH seem to be doing well, none have closed yet...well at least in the last few years. The Sears in my town, Concord, is kept up very well. It looks good and is stocked. Employees are very friendly. I get my vision care done there...best experience I've had so far.

It's happening to all retailers, just more pronounced for K/S.


Post# 966130 , Reply# 18   11/5/2017 at 07:15 (2,335 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA)        

jamiel's profile picture
Yeah, in pockets I think they're doing tolerably (NYC, Hawaii/Guam, New England) but the vast bulk of the stores are struggling badly. The lease thing is two-pronged and a bit of a failure loop...landlords don't really want to re-up for a risky retailer (even if the individual store is doing well), plus they can subdivide for more up-to-date retailers. If Sears owns the property, they transferred it off to a subsidiary, Seritage Properties, where they're actively marketing them for other uses...or shrinking the properties while keeping the core of the Sears/KMart store. It's a death spiral.

Post# 966134 , Reply# 19   11/5/2017 at 07:46 (2,335 days old) by johnrk (BP TX)        
Sad?

You bet. It's always sad when a business model that has been very successful in the past has failed in contemporary times. I would've never dreamed back in the 70's when I bought my first new car in college, that GM or Chrysler would be as they are now. Those older than me can probably remember the primacy of Woolworth's/Barbara Hutton and all of that. They were already headed downhill in the 70's, though we still had the huge multi-floor store in downtown Houston near the hospital where I worked. Books have been written and websites founded on the demise of our great department stores.

A century and more ago, Sears was so very valuable to America, when more people were living rural and that catalogue connected the country. Perhaps its value didn't match Ford's Model T, but it was valuable. As a kid in the 60's, my parents never ordered Sears stuff, and didn't buy there, but I sure enjoyed looking through those huge catalogues when I'd visit some relatives!

I see no need to do yet another lame post-mortem on what happened. The causes should be clear to all on here because of the general level of intelligence. The only sadness I see with the death of this once-great company is its wriggling, desperate attempts to stay alive, rather than closing with dignity. Decades from now it'll be remembered for this as much as its heyday.


Post# 966147 , Reply# 20   11/5/2017 at 08:44 (2,335 days old) by kd12 (Arkansas)        
Bad Marketing Combo

My impression is that K-mart/Sears was a bad combination, both financially and marketing-wise. Financially, Sears Holdings became too dependent on K-mart revenue to help keep them solvent. Marketing wise, K-mart had image problems. I don't think I have been in a K-mart in my life. They were where the poorest of the poor shopped where I grew up. Sears, on the other hand, throughout the 70s and 80s, was where people went to get top-quality items, either at a small-town catalog store, or at the mall in bigger cities. Never could reconcile "blue light specials" with Sears, even in name only.

Post# 968762 , Reply# 21   11/18/2017 at 16:24 (2,321 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)        

I stopped into Kmart and Sears today. Kmart was the busiest I've seen it in years, there were 3 checkout lanes open in front plus the service counter. I didn't go into the garden center. This must be because of the inventory clearout sale they're having. I didn't see much of interest to me though.

Sears was also pretty busy considering how it usually is, particularly the appliances and mattress dept, though I didn't go to the tool or outdoor section.

There were also people in the watch repair department last time I went, which I didn't even know that or the eye glass depts were still open.


Post# 968862 , Reply# 22   11/19/2017 at 02:55 (2,321 days old) by man114 (Buffalo)        
Inventory Blowout sale

Total sham, everything is basically the same price as it normally is but the signs look flashy usually the Sears sale signs are drab and boring in comparison. The expensive Samsung TVs are no longer on sale they're jacked up to $2199 but less 23% due to the inventory blowout. Which was exactly what they were before the sale started. Thankfully the sale ends Black Friday according to the fine print, unless they extend it until Christmas. I'm sure they'll have some other one for the next month.

I wish they'd bring back the one they did during the summer, our store was one of the test ones that participated, where the online price was matched in the store. That was a great sale. Didn't seem to impact the foot traffic or anything but for a long time Sears customer like myself it was super convenient for small trivial stuff. If people knew that it and they did it permanently it probably would be good for business.

Closest Sears is redoing the tools as of late, looks like a pretty advanced project, I've been there regularly the past two or three weeks buying up clearance stuff from that and it seems appliances has been quite busy. The one day it was busy on a Friday afternoon which was rather odd, I stashed the clearance tools and went back later because every register was full of customers. Usually I'll use a spare appliance guy for that because they have quite a few and all of them were occupied.


Post# 968901 , Reply# 23   11/19/2017 at 09:19 (2,321 days old) by vacerator (Macomb, Michigan)        
Wondering

if any of their category manager(s) are monitoring this site or others for feedback or ideas.
Maybe before a year or two ago. Now it just seems like an after glow, or like if you had a bus full of preschoolers tossing their hats out the windows, saying "all gone".


Post# 968919 , Reply# 24   11/19/2017 at 12:52 (2,320 days old) by fan-of-fans (Florida)        

I noticed at Sears the original prices of some items were very inflated. For example, items that were 50% stated the original price to be $42 when it was much less than that.

The sale at Kmart is a true clearing out sale because the store is closing in January. I didn't see any great deals, most things I saw were only 10% off. Clothes were 30%, vacuum bags, belts and filters were 25%.



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