Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

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

Post by wnetmacman »

BatteryMill wrote:
storewanderer wrote:Curiously, they are re-opening a store that had previously closed due to a washed out bridge. http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news-kanaw ... -reopening
That is sure odd for a whole mall to have been cut off because of a bridge. What did they do, haul the goods out with manpower or leave them there for over a year? I'm certainly impressed though, I feel Sears/Kmart can do various stuff with all the time on their hands for local flair.

But I'm best hoping it's not a bust and shrinks/begins closing soon after.
The whole strip mall was closed until the bridge could be reopened, if I understood correctly. Kroger already reopened; other stores were due to do so soon.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by Super S »

Yet even more Kmarts to close...

http://www.businessinsider.com/sears-is ... ist-2017-8

Salem, Oregon is on the list. This will leave Salem with no K mart stores. Interestingly enough, there is a Shopko not too far away.

If Lampert was at all serious about keeping any of the remaining stores open, there would be a push to remodel what is left. But no, he thinks Shop Your Way is the cure to everything. From what I can tell that whole thing is backfiring.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by BatteryMill »

wnetmacman wrote: The whole strip mall was closed until the bridge could be reopened, if I understood correctly. Kroger already reopened; other stores were due to do so soon.
Elaborate a bit more on how they closed up shop without the bridge?
Super S wrote:Yet even more Kmarts to close...

http://www.businessinsider.com/sears-is ... ist-2017-8

Salem, Oregon is on the list. This will leave Salem with no K mart stores. Interestingly enough, there is a Shopko not too far away.

If Lampert was at all serious about keeping any of the remaining stores open, there would be a push to remodel what is left. But no, he thinks Shop Your Way is the cure to everything. From what I can tell that whole thing is backfiring.
I have yet to understand why no one in corporate has demanded Lampert to exit, he is not meant to run a retail chain after his initial adjustments and his promises (he once said the stores have "enough customers). I swear even Chuck Conway's Kmart was better, they were not tied to Sears and still had well over a thousand individual locations to rest on following the 2002-03 bankruptcy and closings.

If they were to finally recognize his mistakes and replace him, would they have a chance at survival? Could they have a smaller storebase to improve upon, split the two retailers and return to a dominant position in the retail ring?
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by wnetmacman »

BatteryMill wrote:Elaborate a bit more on how they closed up shop without the bridge?
Simple. No trucks could get across. Someone had to get over (it wasn't that big of a creek) and lock the doors.
BatteryMill wrote:I have yet to understand why no one in corporate has demanded Lampert to exit, he is not meant to run a retail chain after his initial adjustments and his promises (he once said the stores have "enough customers). I swear even Chuck Conway's Kmart was better, they were not tied to Sears and still had well over a thousand individual locations to rest on following the 2002-03 bankruptcy and closings.

If they were to finally recognize his mistakes and replace him, would they have a chance at survival? Could they have a smaller storebase to improve upon, split the two retailers and return to a dominant position in the retail ring?
Another simple answer: Lampert (and his cronies) hold more than 50% of the company. Hence, they have majority voting. Nobody there bites the hand that feeds them.

Things were 'better' under Conaway, but driving the company to bankruptcy isn't exactly what I'd call better. Additionally, he was out before the case completed. The company lost 1/3 of its storebase just during the bankruptcy alone.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by BatteryMill »

wnetmacman wrote: Simple. No trucks could get across. Someone had to get over (it wasn't that big of a creek) and lock the doors.
Sure, but I would like to know about the circumstances of the merchandise, was that hauled out by people or left there (literally) in the dust? This would also go for any food that was left behind.
wnetmacman wrote: Another simple answer: Lampert (and his cronies) hold more than 50% of the company. Hence, they have majority voting. Nobody there bites the hand that feeds them.

Things were 'better' under Conaway, but driving the company to bankruptcy isn't exactly what I'd call better. Additionally, he was out before the case completed. The company lost 1/3 of its storebase just during the bankruptcy alone.
That's just sad. I guess Kmart (and Sears as well), being vulnerable properties (with some potential) at the time of his takeover were eventually made to just be a way for him to acquire more money. Seems like the only thing that may stop this would be to head to court somehow.

Well, that seems to reveal a lot. That was a shocking turning point, I'd have to wonder if a total bankruptcy would have been possible due to some event and Kmart would have been liquidated then? Seems to explain the "I thought Kmart closed 10-15 years ago" comments found online, though I say they're mostly attributed to various markets lost by Kmart even back then.
I also searched an article (http://www.therobinreport.com/is-there- ... er-office/), stating that previous Kmart CEO Joseph Antonini had somewhat laid the path for Conaway's business practices. Not to mention, Alan Lacy (CEO of Sears preceding the "merger") and Fast Eddie himself are featured.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by storewanderer »

Kmart was fighting a losing battle under Chuck Conaway. The company fell so far behind on systems, on the store base condition, etc. long before Chuck Conaway even came into the picture. Chuck Conaway tried to do too much too fast with adding more groceries, trying to convert existing stores to Super Kmarts which didn't go far beyond the initial 120 or so store group of conversions many of which shut right down during bankruptcy, a more aggressive price program (yet ordering all groceries from Fleming, and in some cases having Fleming groceries hauled up to markets like OR/WA which were 16+ hour drives from the nearest Fleming distribution center, etc.), and some attempts to improve service in the stores. The issue is Kmart was not ready for business. The systems were bad, the stores were broken, the people were broken, and Target/Wal Mart were just doing most things a lot better. Super Kmart was a bright spot and Chuck Conaway correctly recognized that but the problem was the competitive disadvantage of ordering groceries from a wholesaler combined with how this was the era that Wal Mart was blanketing the US with hundreds of new supercenters every year. I think Chuck Conaway thought by trying to grow sales (through lower pricing) they could get the top line up and then end up with more resources to fix their other problems. But it never materialized, the other problems were too deep, and needed to be fixed first.

Where it became very clear to me that Kmart was not going to make it was during the bankruptcy when the better/newer stores were closed. These stores were identified as having higher operating costs and most likely in more competitive areas, so they decided to close those. For example in my area we had two Super Kmarts; one was a medium-high volume leased store, the other was the worst volume store in the district and it was owned by the company. The entire district was part of one of the bankruptcy closure rounds, except for the low volume owned store (which would eventually close, but not until after the Sears merger, and by the time it closed, it was doing less than half of the volume it did before) and then a second leased store also ended up staying open which started its liquidation sale then renegotiated its lease and stayed open (that one also eventually closed too, but only after first covering up grocery).

Over the years Kmart has just died a slow death. Fewer and fewer departments in the stores. Fewer and fewer employees. Less and less merchandise. Fewer and fewer customers. After the bankruptcy, when Kmart was able to turn a small profit (who knows if it was from operations or from revenue from selling real estate in NorCal to Kohls...), it looked like maybe they might actually make it. Then came Sears and we all see how that worked out. From day one, Sears people took control of things, starting employee wages cut to Sears which were lower levels, elimination of things like Sunday pay and birthday/holiday pay for hourly part time employees, pushing the stupid Sears credit card in a format that needs to move customers through the line very quickly, outsourcing corporate HR, outsourcing help desk to people who had no clue how the Kmart systems even worked... I could go on and on. Kmart may have collapsed on its own, but Sears decided to continue to kick what was already down. And they continue to keep kicking it to this day. Sears will collapse very fast once they fully kill off Kmart and no longer have it to kick around.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by SamSpade »

Photos from the (very open) Ammon, Idaho (Idaho Falls) KMart.
In the former K-Cafe space there was a "compare to Amazon" section of children's name brand clothing. Sad to see seasonal still set with patio and ripped off wall decor (little dots still lingered). Only new sign in the store was for Pharmacy (the current KMart red) with English & Spanish. Menswear was missing a department sign and did not have the Adam Levine items- is that done now?

This store actually had a lot of staff, in fact, a young man that might have been loss prevention was following me everywhere - I guess because I took some basic camera phone photos?

Store organization was strange and you can tell that KMart is missing a large depth in categories they used to carry that no longer exist. Paint comes to mind, for example. The former home entertainment area was full of dirty display mattresses, large appliances, and a few off-brand TVs. The store is not a full, crowded, well merchandised variety store like Walmart, or even Bi-Mart. This store did have a much more obvious and full cosmetics area but the items don't logically flow like they do at Target/Walmart/Fred Meyer.

Over-the-PA music was actually pretty fun, I noticed this the last time I was in Beaverton's KMart. The company seems to be taking an 'urban' flare and running R&B hits from the 70s-present. I'm not sure how this is being received in places like Ammon or The Dalles, Oregon.
Image
Image
Image Blue light! (while I was there the PA made an announcement about a Blue Light Special going on, but there was no sign in Ammon)
Image
Image
Image (this looks much worse in person, but is dry. There was another in the former entertainment area where shelving was removed)
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by reymann »

i wonder if eddie lampert might make the decision to divest the profitable kmart stores to target and walmart at some point in order to infuse cash into sears. i think sears will file bankruptcy after the new year.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by mbz321 »

reymann wrote:i wonder if eddie lampert might make the decision to divest the profitable kmart stores to target and walmart at some point in order to infuse cash into sears. i think sears will file bankruptcy after the new year.
I am really hoping they could somehow spin off the profitable Kmart's to a private equity, but that seems less and less likely to happen with each closure announcement. Some high volume stores do still exist, especially in oddball places like Guam and Hawaii, and their NYC locations.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by mbz321 »

reymann wrote:i wonder if eddie lampert might make the decision to divest the profitable kmart stores to target and walmart at some point in order to infuse cash into sears. i think sears will file bankruptcy after the new year.
I am really hoping they could somehow spin off the profitable Kmart's to a private equity, but that seems less and less likely to happen with each closure announcement. Some high volume stores do still exist, especially in oddball places like Guam and Hawaii, and their NYC locations.
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