Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

[storewanderer]

Today's Kmart visit showed continued deterioration at the store. This is supposedly one of the "safe" stores.

There was an employee at the entryway asking if I had a "membership" and when I did not respond then tried to get me to sign up for a membership. Then, tried to sell me a roll of $5.99 gift wrap saying that $2 of the purchase price goes to some non profit organization that I forget the name of.

After this I got over to the food aisles. Vendor cookies, chips are basically gone. Gallons of Smart Sense water are in the milk coolers and in various other places. They actually had bottled water merchandised on three different aisles. Hardly any soda. Hardly any brand name food of any kind. Paper products were limited to P&G branded items and a few other random things in very short supply. Pet area seemed to be a bit better on bagged food but still very weak on everything else.

Clothing area seems full but the stuff they are trying to sell... I don't know.

Housewares area is light on various home items. Auto area was probably about 30% stocked. Just a terrible showing.

The real kicker was when I went to the restroom. No paper products of any kind were available; no seat covers, no toilet paper, and no paper towels (but they did have soap).

It seems like it's over.

[Super S]

Today's Kmart visit showed continued deterioration at the store. This is supposedly one of the "safe" stores.

There was an employee at the entryway asking if I had a "membership" and when I did not respond then tried to get me to sign up for a membership. Then, tried to sell me a roll of $5.99 gift wrap saying that $2 of the purchase price goes to some non profit organization that I forget the name of.

After this I got over to the food aisles. Vendor cookies, chips are basically gone. Gallons of Smart Sense water are in the milk coolers and in various other places. They actually had bottled water merchandised on three different aisles. Hardly any soda. Hardly any brand name food of any kind. Paper products were limited to P&G branded items and a few other random things in very short supply. Pet area seemed to be a bit better on bagged food but still very weak on everything else.

Clothing area seems full but the stuff they are trying to sell... I don't know.

Housewares area is light on various home items. Auto area was probably about 30% stocked. Just a terrible showing.

The real kicker was when I went to the restroom. No paper products of any kind were available; no seat covers, no toilet paper, and no paper towels (but they did have soap).

It seems like it's over.

I wonder how may people turn around and walk out when asked for a "membership" thinking they have to pay to shop at Kmart. Seriously, if they are even remotely serious about surviving, they need to drop the whole "membership" gimmick right now. Sears and Kmart are not Costco. Kmart in particular has lost its concept of reliable low prices with no gimmicks.

[storewanderer]

They are still pushing the membership program by making promotions tie to it. Yesterday, spend $50 get $15 back in points. The points come to you on 01/05/2019 and are valid for 7 days (or was it 5 days)... really not going to count on that happening given the current situation. They can't even stock national brand soda, or get paper products into their restrooms.

I think they are not really in a position to run "hot deals" on small groups of items at this time (due to the inventory problems they are having) so these blanket promotions where you can buy anything and earn points, or where entire categories of the store are 15% off, are about all they can do. These are not good promotions but given their situation I can understand why they are doing this. At least on the Kmart side they are not advertising things they do not have...

But on the Sears side it sounds like they are taking people's money for appliance sales, etc. then items are not getting delivered when promised or delayed. That is not right.

[cjd]

I don't really see why anyone would shop at Kmart at this point. If they don't have inventory, what's the point in stopping in for something unless you don't have any other choices? It sounds more depressing than anything. I never cared to shop in a dirty, understocked store.

Last year when our Kmart closed it was still stocked pretty well up until the closing sale began. I don't remember them not having name branded items or empty shelves. But it sounds like finding a well stocked Kmart is getting close to impossible now.

And for delayed or non existent appliance deliveries, that's just shooting themselves in the foot. With so many already going to other stores to buy large appliances, they're going to lose the only customers they have by doing things like that. Sounds like they really don't care about anything now.

I don't see how they can last for another year. The stocking issues have been going on for a few years now, with inventory caps and expensive inventory insurance required from suppliers, etc. But it sounds like things have really caught up with them now.

[pseudo3d]

Went to the 1950 North Shepherd Sears several days ago in Houston (one of the "safe" locations).

- Inventory has a few missing sections but seems reasonably well-stocked.
- Store had all checkout lines open and used but very little employees elsewhere.
- A peek into the backroom indicated that shrink went significantly up in the store between 2015 and 2016.
- The toy section was thrown together in a department section, with the "Monty Mongoose" mascot
- Home Services counter abandoned, though it looked relatively recently abandoned (still had the fixtures up)
- There was another section (catalog pickup maybe) that was blocked off from customers AND associates.
- Craftsman is now being advertised as "The Original Home of Craftsman"
- The Art Deco-style neon sign outside was fully lit still.

[submariner]

It looks like the end is nearer than we thought:

Sears may be down to its last 24 hours. Iconic retailer likely liquidates if no bid comes in tomorrow.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/27/sears-m ... ar_d2YI7uo

"ESL is the only party offering to buy Sears as a whole ... Without that bid or another like it, liquidators will break the company up into pieces.

[Lampert has] a deadline of Dec. 28 to submit his offer ... As of Thursday afternoon, Lampert had neither submitted his bid, nor rounded up financing."

[klkla]

It will be interesting to see if Fast Eddie can line up financing one last time. Sounds like he might possibly be waiting until the last minute so he can see if anyone else will be competing with his bid OR he really can't get financing and it's finally game over.

[storewanderer]

What is really left at this point.

Sears Stores in A Malls are largely gone (able to sell real estate in the past). There may still be a few Sears Stores left in B Malls but then you get down to the problems with Sears. Land's End is leaving Sears Stores, Sears Stores have been unable to fulfill various large ticket transaction orders such as tires and appliances in recent months, etc. Sears has basically ruined itself in the face of its customers. Their reputation is shot. It is clearly over for Sears Stores. Very few Sears (under 200) are even on the "go forward" list. How can you even have a department store chain of under 200 stores primarily in C and D malls? National ad buys? Forget it. Too few stores to spread the cost over. Private labels? Again, not so easy. The logistics just won't work out.

Then there is Kmart. Most of the 1990's era stores closed during bankruptcy and many more closed following bankruptcy. At this point Kmart is a chain of mostly 35 year old stores many of which still have their original shelving, flooring, and lighting. Kmart is still running on all of its old IT from the early 00's and back then many pegged poor IT as what made Kmart fall so far behind Wal Mart in the first place in the 90's. Kmart is clearly an asset in need of some serious capital investment. At this point I think what is left of Kmart is probably performing halfway decent due to a lack of competition in those specific locations. But the concept is broken and has been for so long... any competition that comes in would put them under immediately.

I do have to think it would be easier to turn a profit going forward with Kmart than with Sears.

[reymann]

i think the liquidators will win tomorrow. i don't see anyone giving the lampert the backing of the $4.6b to keep sears dragging along. i could see some of the kmart real estate going to big lots with their plans of expanding.

[pseudo3d]

Rough stuff. I guess the silver lining is that Sears Hometown will live on (for now), which includes the smaller Hardware and Appliance stores. My guess is Fast Eddie will try to merge what's left of Sears with Sears Hometown. Maybe they'll pick up a few stores, too.