Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

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

Post by babs »

Super S wrote: August 22nd, 2018, 5:55 pm
SamSpade wrote: August 22nd, 2018, 5:20 pm Portland loses another K-Mart, Gresham.
That lot will quickly fall into decay... or hopefully re-development. It is steps from the MAX Blue Line, a sea of parking, no other stores. . .

I don't understand why the KMart in Beaverton on Murray Blvd. persists!
3 left in the state -
Beaverton (Portland suburb)
The Dalles, removed from any other retail, except Fred Meyer, Bi-Mart
Corvallis, removed from any other retail except Bi-Mart

What's the story on that small store in Los Angeles? Seems to be a thriving retail district with a Whole Foods in the same lot.

Sears has officially left all operations in Utah by announcing the closure of their store at West Jordan's Jordan Landing. This was the original Sears Grand prototype store, but square footage was cut to share with a Burlington store.

Boise, ID and Idaho Falls, ID remain the only remaining Sears stores in Idaho. Both are attached to very successful regional malls.
Beaverton is VERY run-down looking. I don't get why it hasn't closed already. Gresham doesn't surprise me as it was similar in age and appearance to the one on Sandy shutting down. Sears is also closing two locations. Vancouver Mall (which has been weak on hard goods for years due to the proximity to tax-free Oregon) and Clackamas Town Center (which is in a busy mall, but owned by GGP who I previously mentioned Sears has had a rocky relationship with). It used to be one of the busiest stores but staff got cut to the bone a while back. The only remaining Sears in the Portland area will be at Washington Square. In the case of Clackamas though, it signals the end of the chain is near when a store in a "grade A" mall is closing....
Washington Square can't be find behind. The store is always dead. Was downstairs in the appliance department in an area that used to be busy on the weekends and only one potential customer was there. My expectation is that sometime in 2019, they will throw the towel in.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by J-Man »

What's the story on that small store in Los Angeles? Seems to be a thriving retail district with a Whole Foods in the same lot.
The shopping center in which it's located is scheduled to undergo a major renovation. They're adding housing units and more retail, and much of the existing center is being demolished. I'm not sure if the Kmart building was part of the demolition, but I would imagine that it would not really fit in with the demographic the new development is aiming for.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by mbz321 »

J-Man wrote: August 23rd, 2018, 8:09 am
What's the story on that small store in Los Angeles? Seems to be a thriving retail district with a Whole Foods in the same lot.
The shopping center in which it's located is scheduled to undergo a major renovation. They're adding housing units and more retail, and much of the existing center is being demolished. I'm not sure if the Kmart building was part of the demolition, but I would imagine that it would not really fit in with the demographic the new development is aiming for.
It really hasn't fit in that area for several decades now, but it was a profitable location given it was the only discount store in the immediate area. I heard it wasn't Kmart's choice to leave, but from what I heard, their lease has technically been over for some time.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Super S »

babs wrote: August 23rd, 2018, 8:04 am
Super S wrote: August 22nd, 2018, 5:55 pm
SamSpade wrote: August 22nd, 2018, 5:20 pm Portland loses another K-Mart, Gresham.
That lot will quickly fall into decay... or hopefully re-development. It is steps from the MAX Blue Line, a sea of parking, no other stores. . .

I don't understand why the KMart in Beaverton on Murray Blvd. persists!
3 left in the state -
Beaverton (Portland suburb)
The Dalles, removed from any other retail, except Fred Meyer, Bi-Mart
Corvallis, removed from any other retail except Bi-Mart

What's the story on that small store in Los Angeles? Seems to be a thriving retail district with a Whole Foods in the same lot.

Sears has officially left all operations in Utah by announcing the closure of their store at West Jordan's Jordan Landing. This was the original Sears Grand prototype store, but square footage was cut to share with a Burlington store.

Boise, ID and Idaho Falls, ID remain the only remaining Sears stores in Idaho. Both are attached to very successful regional malls.
Beaverton is VERY run-down looking. I don't get why it hasn't closed already. Gresham doesn't surprise me as it was similar in age and appearance to the one on Sandy shutting down. Sears is also closing two locations. Vancouver Mall (which has been weak on hard goods for years due to the proximity to tax-free Oregon) and Clackamas Town Center (which is in a busy mall, but owned by GGP who I previously mentioned Sears has had a rocky relationship with). It used to be one of the busiest stores but staff got cut to the bone a while back. The only remaining Sears in the Portland area will be at Washington Square. In the case of Clackamas though, it signals the end of the chain is near when a store in a "grade A" mall is closing....
Washington Square can't be find behind. The store is always dead. Was downstairs in the appliance department in an area that used to be busy on the weekends and only one potential customer was there. My expectation is that sometime in 2019, they will throw the towel in.
Washington Square is one location that could stick around until the chain's bitter end due to the fact it is in the area's busiest mall.

But it wouldn't surprise me at this point to see ANY Sears or Kmart randomly close now. The merchandise mix is just not present in the stores now and there is no real reason to shop either chain, especially when Sears is selling off their private labels which was one of their few strong points. When those names started appearing at other stores, Sears basically gave away a good chunk of the few remaining customers they have.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by klkla »

J-Man wrote: August 23rd, 2018, 8:09 am
What's the story on that small store in Los Angeles? Seems to be a thriving retail district with a Whole Foods in the same lot.
The shopping center in which it's located is scheduled to undergo a major renovation. They're adding housing units and more retail, and much of the existing center is being demolished. I'm not sure if the Kmart building was part of the demolition, but I would imagine that it would not really fit in with the demographic the new development is aiming for.
The Kmart lease ended last year and they are currently on month-to-month rent. The plan is to give Kmart the boot and tear down their store, replacing it with a 26 story apartment building which will utilize the entire east side of the property. Whole Foods, CVS and Citibank (which operates in a free-standing pad on the west side of the center) will stay the same as they are now.

There has been some neighborhood opposition to the project because of it's size, which is surprising because it's next door to the enormous Park La Brea Apartment complex and the also enormous The Grove shopping/apartment
complex.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by cjd »

I agree, and while I try to give Sears a chance, I just find little to buy there, and much is just not in stock/carried in my store. They just don't have the selection they had 15, 10 or even 5 years ago. The electronics department is just leftover cables and surge protectors, maybe a few TV mounts. Some of the stuff out for sale looks like old stock that's been there for a few years. I always see the same clothes out for sale, regardless of the season.

I get the feeling that people have forgotten about Sears really. There's rarely but a few people in the store when I go in, yet other anchors in the mall will be relatively busy. You might see a few people checking out refrigerators, or washing machines but only a few and not really younger people. But for that matter you don't see many people looking at them at other big box stores either. Appliances were Sears strong point, but with closure constantly impending, everyone wants to know what to do if warranty work is needed. Who is going to honor it if Sears closes up? Not to mention who will repair it if there's no local store open.

I'm not even sure why the closure lists keep making headlines on the news, do people really care at this point?

The Auto Center is still open but from the reviews online I wouldn't bother taking my car there.

Just really not a happy experience going there, just a sad place to walk through. I could see the issues with both stores, as far back as 2010 at least, but now I don't even know why they are still open.

It would be interesting to see what will happen to the mall here after Sears goes out, they haven't found a tenant for the Kmart space yet. The other anchors are holding steady, it seems, but the rest of the mall certainly won't benefit from two big vacancies.

Also, I did notice last year that Sears was slightly busier during the holiday season, but they really did not seem to push the sales much. Kmart stayed very busy but it was of course because of their closing sale. I expect Sears and Kmart will again report low sales during this holiday season, and will not push any Black Friday sales. They would have to have a good amount of inventory in all of their stores anyway to make such a sale happen, and they probably can't do that, in most of their stores, due to the amount limits they have from their suppliers.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by SamSpade »

The Columbian, which is Vancouver, Wash.'s newspaper of record had a little more context about their closure:
The Sears store has been an anchor at Vancouver Mall since the shopping center opened in August 1977. Other mall anchor stores have closed in recent years including Nordstrom in January 2015 and Mervyn’s in 2007. Cinetopia moved into the Mervyn’s location in 2012. Gold’s Gym took over the upper level of the former Nordstrom store; the lower level of the space is now an H&M clothing store.

J.C. Penney and Macy’s — which has changed in name but not in owner — remain the last anchor stores of the original 41-year-old mall.

J.B. Schutte, the mall’s general manager, said Thursday morning that he’s as surprised as anybody about the store’s closure. He had found out through a Google Alert notification.

“This caught us off guard,” Schutte said. “We were surprised by the announcement yesterday.”

Sears Holdings Corp., which did not return a request for comment Thursday, owns the store property at the south end of the mall as well as a portion of the parking lot, Schutte said.

The rest of the mall has been owned by Centennial Real Estate Co. since 2015. Centennial has been in discussions with Sears for the last 2½ years attempting to purchase the property, Schutte added.

It’s too soon to say how the Sears branch closure might affect those discussions, he said.

“There’s been a lot of interest in that location because it’s front and center in our property,” Schutte said.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote: August 31st, 2018, 10:05 pm The Columbian, which is Vancouver, Wash.'s newspaper of record had a little more context about their closure:
The Sears store has been an anchor at Vancouver Mall since the shopping center opened in August 1977. Other mall anchor stores have closed in recent years including Nordstrom in January 2015 and Mervyn’s in 2007. Cinetopia moved into the Mervyn’s location in 2012. Gold’s Gym took over the upper level of the former Nordstrom store; the lower level of the space is now an H&M clothing store.

J.C. Penney and Macy’s — which has changed in name but not in owner — remain the last anchor stores of the original 41-year-old mall.

J.B. Schutte, the mall’s general manager, said Thursday morning that he’s as surprised as anybody about the store’s closure. He had found out through a Google Alert notification.

“This caught us off guard,” Schutte said. “We were surprised by the announcement yesterday.”

Sears Holdings Corp., which did not return a request for comment Thursday, owns the store property at the south end of the mall as well as a portion of the parking lot, Schutte said.

The rest of the mall has been owned by Centennial Real Estate Co. since 2015. Centennial has been in discussions with Sears for the last 2½ years attempting to purchase the property, Schutte added.

It’s too soon to say how the Sears branch closure might affect those discussions, he said.

“There’s been a lot of interest in that location because it’s front and center in our property,” Schutte said.
I will agree that the Sears is probably the most visible space along state highway 500. But I don't get why anybody would be "surprised" that a Sears is closing at this point.

Vancouver Mall is interesting in that it has survived despite being located so close to tax-free Oregon. But with that said, Macy's did a huge expansion and very thorough remodel right around the time the name change from Meier & Frank (it was still Meier & Frank when construction began) and I don't think they are going anywhere. JCPenney on the other hand....there is a newer standalone location on East Mill Plain near 192nd and the Vancouver Mall store is aging.

I will give some credit to mall management for being able to fill big spaces fairly quickly. In all honesty, right now Vancouver Mall looks healthier than Lloyd Center, where Nordstrom closed at the same time as Vancouver Mall.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by SamSpade »

The chart in this article really tells the Sears Holdings story well:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/09/ ... lived.aspx

On a related note, I was near Vancouver Mall this weekend. No outdoor signs that Sears was going out of business other than the AVIS Car Rental sign was taped over.

There is a nearby local mattress retailer that is liquidating though. They had those sign holders out on the streets.

Orchard Supply (through Hilco) is raising their discounts fairly quickly and using local radio advertisements in an attempt to generate interest. They have 3 Portland area stores.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Super S »

SamSpade wrote: September 24th, 2018, 9:48 pm The chart in this article really tells the Sears Holdings story well:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/09/ ... lived.aspx

On a related note, I was near Vancouver Mall this weekend. No outdoor signs that Sears was going out of business other than the AVIS Car Rental sign was taped over.

There is a nearby local mattress retailer that is liquidating though. They had those sign holders out on the streets.

Orchard Supply (through Hilco) is raising their discounts fairly quickly and using local radio advertisements in an attempt to generate interest. They have 3 Portland area stores.
Wasn't aware until now that Mattress Factory Outlet was shutting down. That family used to run Vancouver Furniture years ago.
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