Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

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

Post by Brian Lutz »

Now Eddie Lampert is trying to buy the rest of Sears for $4.6 billion:

https://komonews.com/news/business/sear ... rupt-chain


Can't see this changing anything.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by submariner »

Brian Lutz wrote: December 6th, 2018, 12:51 pm Now Eddie Lampert is trying to buy the rest of Sears for $4.6 billion:

https://komonews.com/news/business/sear ... rupt-chain


Can't see this changing anything.
A person who ran the company into the ground, using a hedge fund firm to run the business as a private company?

Nah, I can't see how this could fail. :roll:
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by cjd »

I noticed Sears seems to be pushing toys this year. When I went a few weeks ago, I saw signs with characters from Nickelodeon saying "Visit our Toy Store". They had taken an empty space next to the mattress department (originally this was the TV department, but recently had been home to just a few electronic odds and ends and most recently vacuums before they moved them) and filled it with shelving and toys. It looked pretty well presented, but I don't think it was drawing much attention. There were maybe 10 people shopping in the store, but they were all in clothing or appliances.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by storewanderer »

submariner wrote: December 7th, 2018, 6:59 pm
Brian Lutz wrote: December 6th, 2018, 12:51 pm Now Eddie Lampert is trying to buy the rest of Sears for $4.6 billion:

https://komonews.com/news/business/sear ... rupt-chain


Can't see this changing anything.
A person who ran the company into the ground, using a hedge fund firm to run the business as a private company?

Nah, I can't see how this could fail. :roll:
With star performers like the Aberdeen, WA Sears or the Las Cruces, NM Sears I am confident this company privately held by ESL will be successful. Just as confident as I am about the long term success of the Phar Mor chain going forward. Oh, wait . . .

Well, they are keeping some good stores I guess, like that Guam Kmart. Or the Grass Valley, CA Kmart. Or the Bishop, CA Kmart. The Sears in San Bruno, CA also isn't bad. That and Concord are probably the only decent Sears Stores left in NorCal. Stockton is borderline.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote: December 8th, 2018, 12:08 am
submariner wrote: December 7th, 2018, 6:59 pm
Brian Lutz wrote: December 6th, 2018, 12:51 pm Now Eddie Lampert is trying to buy the rest of Sears for $4.6 billion:

https://komonews.com/news/business/sear ... rupt-chain


Can't see this changing anything.
A person who ran the company into the ground, using a hedge fund firm to run the business as a private company?

Nah, I can't see how this could fail. :roll:
With star performers like the Aberdeen, WA Sears or the Las Cruces, NM Sears I am confident this company privately held by ESL will be successful. Just as confident as I am about the long term success of the Phar Mor chain going forward. Oh, wait . . .

Well, they are keeping some good stores I guess, like that Guam Kmart. Or the Grass Valley, CA Kmart. Or the Bishop, CA Kmart. The Sears in San Bruno, CA also isn't bad. That and Concord are probably the only decent Sears Stores left in NorCal. Stockton is borderline.
Don't forget the 1960s era Sears in Lacey, WA, which is still open but right next to a much newer Target store. Or the Sears at Southcenter, perhaps the only one not closing in the Pacific Northwest left in a mall with decent foot traffic, but suffers from an odd layout especially the upstairs inside mall entry.

But I guess the Kmart in The Dalles can hold its own unless Walmart comes to town.

People from the larger cities aren't going to travel to a depressed town like Aberdeen just to shop at Sears though when there are better options (and in Aberdeen's case, better malls that actually have stores in them)
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by storewanderer »

I visited a Kmart today, one of the 505 supposedly "safe" stores. They have a quasi-liquidation sale going with "additional 15% off hardlines" and "additional 20% off softlines" going on. This is in the form of a coupon code that the cashier needs to scan at the register. The cashiers were not scanning the coupon unless a customer asked for it.

The store was stocked better than I'd expect overall but the consumables areas were weak. For instance, motor oil was pretty full which surprised me. Prices seem to have gone up on many items in the past month.

Again on that weakness in the consumables area. There were no coke products, but Pepsi was present and full. Lay's products were full. Grocery shelves are filled with odd random items in weird brands I've never heard of before. The pet area was particularly bad. It appears Purina has cut them off. They have virtually no wet dog food and spread out dog bones into that space to make it look full. They have very little cat litter other than some Tidy Cat ones and spread cat and dog beds into the old cat litter space to make it look full. Wet cat food was also very limited (no Friskies). What was interesting there is they took down the shelf tags for the items that they no longer have so in order to get that area restocked again it will be like they have to do a full "reset" to the shelves. Those resets are rather time consuming and I am surprised they simply didn't "flip the tags over" or something. Assuming they actually plan to get these products in stock again at some point in the future...

The Shop Your Way program appears to have been scaled back significantly; I did not get any coupons with my receipt and the 3 people who paid in front of me also did not get any coupons.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by cjd »

Stopped by our local Sears yesterday. Overall the store itself looked really nice. No empty shelves and everything was neat and tidy. Holiday signage was up throughout and looked good. The store wasn't nearly as busy as Belk or JCPenney but there were a small number of people browsing clothing and making purchases at the checkouts and jewelry counter. I'd say about 15-20 shoppers, which isn't as good as the others for sure, but better than normal. Appliances and housewares only had a few people. Tools, lawn and garden was basically a ghost town but a few were looking at seasonal decorations. I only saw one person back in tires/automotive department.

The toy section doesn't seem to be attracting any attention, but it certainly looked better than empty space. I think it's going to be a dud though, especially considering how many toys they have packed into that department.

Overall the store looked fine other than the usual temperature rise I always notice upon entering compared to the rest of the mall.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by SamSpade »

This is kind of a bummer for the liquidating locations, not that Sears Holdings has to care at this point:
https://goo.gl/maps/N61xeRdoJAo
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by rwsandiego »

cjd wrote: December 9th, 2018, 11:36 am Stopped by our local Sears yesterday. Overall the store itself looked really nice. No empty shelves and everything was neat and tidy. ...
That’s pretty easy to maintain when a store has no customers. :D ;) :| :(
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2018

Post by Super S »

We might have one more wave of closures announced before the end of 2018:

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/19/sears-p ... -bid-.html
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