Sears Hometown files for bankruptcy
Posted: December 12th, 2022, 9:29 pm
It appears the local store owners will be left holding the bag with nothing left to sell
https://archive.ph/O6d0p
https://archive.ph/O6d0p
Crazy about retail.
http://www.retailwatchers.com/
They haven't had much to sell for a while. The lack of inventory is why they are down to just 121 dealer stores. This is the first time in a while we have seen them give a store count for anything.cathandler wrote: ↑December 12th, 2022, 9:29 pm It appears the local store owners will be left holding the bag with nothing left to sell
https://archive.ph/O6d0p
All are closing. They were all notified by Sears that they must close. Sears will no longer provide inventory or support them. They will have to remove the Sears signs and quit using the Sears name when Sears determines the liquidation sale is done. I wonder who will pay for sign removal- probably the poor dealer. At these stores even with independent "owners" Sears consigned them all of the inventory, controlled their point of sale/payment processing, etc. What is interesting here is these dealers owned their own delivery trucks and install equipment, that part of their operation was not controlled by Sears...
Sign removal has not been a priority for the regular Sears stores that have closed. As of a week ago signage is still in place on the closed store in Lacey, WA, although some construction is taking place on the building. I also know that signage was still in place in Puyallup a few months back. Early on, Sears and Kmart moved quickly to remove signs, sometimes the day after closing. There are other Sears and Kmart stores from more recent waves of closures where signs just stay in place until the building gets another tenant, or is demolished.storewanderer wrote: ↑December 31st, 2022, 12:03 amAll are closing. They were all notified by Sears that they must close. Sears will no longer provide inventory or support them. They will have to remove the Sears signs and quit using the Sears name when Sears determines the liquidation sale is done. I wonder who will pay for sign removal- probably the poor dealer. At these stores even with independent "owners" Sears consigned them all of the inventory, controlled their point of sale/payment processing, etc. What is interesting here is these dealers owned their own delivery trucks and install equipment, that part of their operation was not controlled by Sears...
Some dealers were ordered to close immediately and Sears came and took their inventory. Other dealers are going through the liquidation sale process being managed by Sears (since the inventory is property of Sears). It is unclear how they selected which close immediately and which go through liquidation sale.
Other thing I wonder is if I am a Sears Dealer and I have a lease on a building, can I let Sears do this liquidation sale then open up my own independent appliance/hardware store in the building? After all, I am tied into a lease. What do I do? Do I have to make my dealer store LLC go bankrupt in order to get out of the lease? It seems to me if I have a space, and if I have delivery trucks, I could open an independent appliance store in the space and see how that works out. With as big of a mess as Sears has been lately, I have to think these folks who have been able to keep their dealer stores open this long, must be excellent salespeople.
Somehow I suspect landlords and Sears will hardball these dealer store owners into paying for sign removal.Super S wrote: ↑December 31st, 2022, 7:39 am
Sign removal has not been a priority for the regular Sears stores that have closed. As of a week ago signage is still in place on the closed store in Lacey, WA, although some construction is taking place on the building. I also know that signage was still in place in Puyallup a few months back. Early on, Sears and Kmart moved quickly to remove signs, sometimes the day after closing. There are other Sears and Kmart stores from more recent waves of closures where signs just stay in place until the building gets another tenant, or is demolished.