Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

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

Post by Super S »

BillyGr wrote: October 16th, 2018, 10:05 am
babs wrote: October 15th, 2018, 1:36 pm A lot of the comments here are using shocking or surprising as to what locations are staying or going. The chain is dead. There is no rhyme or reason why locations are staying open or closing. Today's events will make things spiral downward faster for any location still open. Why would you buy any big ticket item like appliances from them?
Why not? If the store near you is closing, you may be able to get a good price on those items (which aren't always available at the kind of discounts that show up during closings, particularly if they hang out till later in the sale).

If they aren't, still no reason not to buy them there if they have a better price than other options.

If you have a problem with them, you can always go to the company that makes them for issues (like repairs) as you could anywhere you buy them, you don't need the store to do that.
But when Sears still owns Kenmore and Diehard, who will honor the warranty when Sears folds? The Hometown stores? (Which barely touch the automotive end of things) Keep in mind they have already closed most of their parts and service centers. I have had some difficulty at times obtaining Sears-specific parts by mail order, but it is hit or miss.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by BillyGr »

Super S wrote: October 16th, 2018, 10:26 am
BillyGr wrote: October 16th, 2018, 10:05 am Why not? If the store near you is closing, you may be able to get a good price on those items (which aren't always available at the kind of discounts that show up during closings, particularly if they hang out till later in the sale).

If they aren't, still no reason not to buy them there if they have a better price than other options.

If you have a problem with them, you can always go to the company that makes them for issues (like repairs) as you could anywhere you buy them, you don't need the store to do that.
But when Sears still owns Kenmore and Diehard, who will honor the warranty when Sears folds? The Hometown stores? (Which barely touch the automotive end of things) Keep in mind they have already closed most of their parts and service centers. I have had some difficulty at times obtaining Sears-specific parts by mail order, but it is hit or miss.
Whoever buys those brands would (after all, they've already sold off many of their once owned brands, and if they completely close up at some point the bankruptcy courts would sell any left to get money back for those who are owed it).
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Super S »

BillyGr wrote: October 17th, 2018, 8:05 am
Super S wrote: October 16th, 2018, 10:26 am
BillyGr wrote: October 16th, 2018, 10:05 am Why not? If the store near you is closing, you may be able to get a good price on those items (which aren't always available at the kind of discounts that show up during closings, particularly if they hang out till later in the sale).

If they aren't, still no reason not to buy them there if they have a better price than other options.

If you have a problem with them, you can always go to the company that makes them for issues (like repairs) as you could anywhere you buy them, you don't need the store to do that.
But when Sears still owns Kenmore and Diehard, who will honor the warranty when Sears folds? The Hometown stores? (Which barely touch the automotive end of things) Keep in mind they have already closed most of their parts and service centers. I have had some difficulty at times obtaining Sears-specific parts by mail order, but it is hit or miss.
Whoever buys those brands would (after all, they've already sold off many of their once owned brands, and if they completely close up at some point the bankruptcy courts would sell any left to get money back for those who are owed it).
I was wondering more about the scenario if Sears closes without a buyer for Kenmore or Diehard. The possibility exists. Name brands are a different story. While I realize other manufacturers make the stuff for Sears, they aren't going to be around for help if the repair services won't touch Sears branded products out of fear of not being reimbursed.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by storewanderer »

Here is the "safe" store list. Blended Sears and Kmart. Store numbers 1000 are generally Sears. 2000/3000/4000 are a mixture of Kmart and Sears. 9000s are the small town Kmarts. I cannot believe that Sears in Aberdeen, WA is on this list. This is the list of go-forward stores if they get out of bankruptcy, and has 200 Kmarts and 125 Sears. I also cannot see the point in Sears as a 125 store chain absent from numerous metro areas. The surviving chain if it survives will have over 1/3 of its stores in CA and PR.

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/VGWx9cG

And here is an "under evaluation" store list. This list will be considered for potential closure in November.
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/VGGtmod



Also supposedly the current lot of liquidation sales will only last 45 days.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by jamcool »

If so there will only be one Sears (Tucson) and one Kmart (Lake Havasu) left in Arizona
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by wnetmacman »

storewanderer wrote: October 18th, 2018, 10:49 pm Here is the "safe" store list. Blended Sears and Kmart. Store numbers 1000 are generally Sears. 2000/3000/4000 are a mixture of Kmart and Sears. 9000s are the small town Kmarts.
That isn't current. The store numbers 1000-2999 are all Sears. The store numbers 3xxx, 4xxx, 7xxx and 9xxx are all Kmart.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by babs »

storewanderer wrote: October 18th, 2018, 10:49 pm Here is the "safe" store list. Blended Sears and Kmart. Store numbers 1000 are generally Sears. 2000/3000/4000 are a mixture of Kmart and Sears. 9000s are the small town Kmarts. I cannot believe that Sears in Aberdeen, WA is on this list. This is the list of go-forward stores if they get out of bankruptcy, and has 200 Kmarts and 125 Sears. I also cannot see the point in Sears as a 125 store chain absent from numerous metro areas. The surviving chain if it survives will have over 1/3 of its stores in CA and PR.

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/VGWx9cG

And here is an "under evaluation" store list. This list will be considered for potential closure in November.
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/VGGtmod



Also supposedly the current lot of liquidation sales will only last 45 days.
There is little rhyme or reason to this list. Some stores may be doing better financially but that's likely due to location-specific issues rather than an affinity towards the brand. And they should consolidate under one brand instead of two. They only way they survive is if Fast Eddie buys them, no one else will. And even if Fast Eddie buys what's left, he's not going to be able to turn it around. The BK news will make them sink even faster.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Super S »

babs wrote: October 19th, 2018, 9:32 am
storewanderer wrote: October 18th, 2018, 10:49 pm Here is the "safe" store list. Blended Sears and Kmart. Store numbers 1000 are generally Sears. 2000/3000/4000 are a mixture of Kmart and Sears. 9000s are the small town Kmarts. I cannot believe that Sears in Aberdeen, WA is on this list. This is the list of go-forward stores if they get out of bankruptcy, and has 200 Kmarts and 125 Sears. I also cannot see the point in Sears as a 125 store chain absent from numerous metro areas. The surviving chain if it survives will have over 1/3 of its stores in CA and PR.

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/VGWx9cG

And here is an "under evaluation" store list. This list will be considered for potential closure in November.
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/VGGtmod



Also supposedly the current lot of liquidation sales will only last 45 days.
There is little rhyme or reason to this list. Some stores may be doing better financially but that's likely due to location-specific issues rather than an affinity towards the brand. And they should consolidate under one brand instead of two. They only way they survive is if Fast Eddie buys them, no one else will. And even if Fast Eddie buys what's left, he's not going to be able to turn it around. The BK news will make them sink even faster.
I too am surprised that Aberdeen, WA has escaped closing lists. This location has had little if any remodeling, and still has the Times New Roman signage outside. (The inside mall entrance has a newer sign). The store is supposedly still profitable. But it is in a VERY dead mall where a JCPenney closed, and a Kmart closed in the early 2000s, was torn down, and an empty hole has been in that spot since. The mall just seems out of place in a town like Aberdeen, where the economy has suffered for years.

Some of the "before and after" lists are already outdated as they don't accurately list the closed and/or closing stores. One I saw which supposedly showed a "before" list of Kmart that showed all locations before any waves of store closures left out towns like Aberdeen, Hillsboro, OR, Woodburn, OR, and a location in north Salem, OR (not to be confused with a more recent closure there)
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Knight »

Kmart #7062, 1143 Broad Street, Sumter, South Carolina 29150-1971, is in the process of closing. A closing date has not been established.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Super S »

Any time the word "bankruptcy" is mentioned, many people automatically think this means ALL stores are closing. This is not necessarily true, but all the talk in the news since the announcement doesn't exactly help sales at the stores not already closing. There is a LOT of speculation about the future of Sears/Kmart right now, and we unfortunately live in an era where many people automatically believe everything they see on the internet without checking facts. It doesn't help that many news organizations don't get their facts straight when publishing stories. This does not bode well for the company's future.
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