Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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klkla
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by klkla »

architect wrote: January 10th, 2018, 9:55 am If there was any doubt that the end is near:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/articles.m ... nsider.amp
From that article, ""Comparable store sales at Sears and Kmart for the first two months of the fourth quarter of 2017 have declined in the range of 16%-17%," according to the company.'

That's crazy. They just need to put this company of out of it's misery. There is no path forward.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by pseudo3d »

klkla wrote: January 10th, 2018, 6:18 pm
architect wrote: January 10th, 2018, 9:55 am If there was any doubt that the end is near:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/articles.m ... nsider.amp
From that article, ""Comparable store sales at Sears and Kmart for the first two months of the fourth quarter of 2017 have declined in the range of 16%-17%," according to the company.'

That's crazy. They just need to put this company of out of it's misery. There is no path forward.
Why do these companies run stores poorly and then be surprised when sales drop off? Obviously Sears/Kmart is a huge offender, but Albertsons/Safeway does this to a lesser extent.
storewanderer
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: January 10th, 2018, 6:18 pm
architect wrote: January 10th, 2018, 9:55 am If there was any doubt that the end is near:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/articles.m ... nsider.amp
From that article, ""Comparable store sales at Sears and Kmart for the first two months of the fourth quarter of 2017 have declined in the range of 16%-17%," according to the company.'

That's crazy. They just need to put this company of out of it's misery. There is no path forward.
Let's see. No Black Friday promotions at Kmart. No clue on Sears. Liquidation sale style "blow out" sales throughout the holidays with % off various categories, but then other categories excluded...

It was clear they were not even trying for the holidays... the decline in sales is no surprise and I feel it was intentional.

Maybe the high sales decline will somehow hasten whatever the wind down plans are. I mean the "transition" plans.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote: January 10th, 2018, 7:50 pm Why do these companies run stores poorly and then be surprised when sales drop off? Obviously Sears/Kmart is a huge offender, but Albertsons/Safeway does this to a lesser extent.
At least Albertsons is doing things to try to get folks into the stores. Sears acts like they want to fail, and keep folks out of the stores.
storewanderer wrote: January 10th, 2018, 8:34 pm Let's see. No Black Friday promotions at Kmart. No clue on Sears. Liquidation sale style "blow out" sales throughout the holidays with % off various categories, but then other categories excluded...

It was clear they were not even trying for the holidays... the decline in sales is no surprise and I feel it was intentional.

Maybe the high sales decline will somehow hasten whatever the wind down plans are. I mean the "transition" plans.
Transition to oblivion. That's their next step.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote: January 10th, 2018, 8:37 pm
pseudo3d wrote: January 10th, 2018, 7:50 pm Why do these companies run stores poorly and then be surprised when sales drop off? Obviously Sears/Kmart is a huge offender, but Albertsons/Safeway does this to a lesser extent.
At least Albertsons is doing things to try to get folks into the stores. Sears acts like they want to fail, and keep folks out of the stores.
The weird thing about the Albertsons/Safeway merger and comparisons to Sears/Kmart is that they did a lot of things right that Sears/Kmart didn't do or did incorrectly. For example, they saw Amazon as a threat, they sold off real estate when the stores were still profitable, they merged the distribution system (I think well into the merger and even today, Sears and Kmart have separate DCs), they engaged in a remodeling campaign, etc., despite going in as two damaged-goods retailers much like Sears/Kmart.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by storewanderer »

Sears and Kmart has been combining distribution for a while for like items in some cases. Years ago they started to use some of the local Kmart distribution (now closed) to house appliances. I have even seen Kmart merchandise (cases of water and candy with Kmart shipping labels) inside some Sears Dealer Stores.

I have also seen some Sears items in Kmart and Kmart items in Sears so I believe there is cross in other categories as well.

Not saying there was any rhyme or reason to how they combined distribution, however...

Albertsons/Safeway there is/was clearly a rhyme and reason to how and why they combined distribution...
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by mbz321 »

pseudo3d wrote: January 10th, 2018, 7:50 pm
Why do these companies run stores poorly and then be surprised when sales drop off? Obviously Sears/Kmart is a huge offender, but Albertsons/Safeway does this to a lesser extent.
[/quote]


I don't think there is any surprise here....just part of Crazy Eddie's slowest liquidation sale ever.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by pseudo3d »

Not a "death watch" item but I found it a little interesting how they actually re-signed a lease at Westfield Montgomery instead of closing it (as the headline indicates) when the lease was up. Must have been a heck of a deal. I wonder if it will end with mall landlords buying what's left...

http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesd ... ill-Close/
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by storewanderer »

I had more fun with their points program tonight. I accumulated some 90% off Christmas Items and went to pay. The only register open was service desk where you can't see prices as items are rung up... anyway I was told I had $5 in "surprise points" to apply to the purchase but even considering that, the total came out high and obviously some items scanned wrong; the employee turned the screen around and identified the items that scanned wrong; the employee said we could void/start over or I pay then refund whatever came up wrong. The latter seemed to be the easiest option. Surprise points get deducted from the refund amount and are not credited back via new points so next time (assuming they haven't closed the whole chain down yet) I won't be doing anything with their loyalty program until I see all of the prices scanned as expected.

After it was all said and done I had out of pocket expense of about $3 for quite a few items, about $50 worth at their obviously inflated regular prices. But some (many actually) of their Christmas Items are quite nice.

Along with my purchase came $8 of "free cash" (good starting in a couple days) and a couple other coupons that escape my mind, in addition to "1,000 bonus points" ($1 good starting tomorrow).

I don't really understand their promotional strategy but
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by mbz321 »

storewanderer wrote: January 17th, 2018, 10:17 pm

Along with my purchase came $8 of "free cash" (good starting in a couple days) and a couple other coupons that escape my mind, in addition to "1,000 bonus points" ($1 good starting tomorrow).

I don't really understand their promotional strategy but
Less assets for the bankruptcy court take when they do go belly up? I really don't understand it either, but that's the only reason I can think of as to why they are basically giving away merchandise at this point. The stock of merchandise in my local Kmart and Sears store are noticeably thinning out.
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