Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by storewanderer »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: September 28th, 2021, 4:38 pm You know it's bad when the last stores in home states close...
They'd be better off rebranding the remaining territorial Kmarts as Sears, and closing the remaining mainland Kmarts. Not that rebranding to Sears makes a difference anyway.
That Sears that is closing or about to close in IL was a flagship store of sorts for Sears. Modern and kept up facility (until they quit stocking it a couple years ago). I think it was a pet store of sorts for the various dead end initiatives Sears kept coming up with over the years.

The Kmart closing in Marshall, MI- I don't think it was a flagship store. Just looks like the usual Kmart. Old. I understand there is no competition in Marshall. When they started to close Kmarts in places with no competition a couple years ago it became very clear there was no plan to keep the chain going.
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by Romr123 »

Yeah, nothing special about Marshall, MI...KMart was in a strip center with a supermarket, Rite Aid, credit union, etc. Marshall's an unusually attractive little town with a relatively healthy downtown just a couple miles off the intersection of I-94 and I-69 and 20 minutes from Battle Creek which is where there are a couple of Meijer stores...juuust far enough to have kept KMart viable. B&Bs, restaurants, etc in the downtown; if I were to guess, the KMart will pretty quickly become a TSC or other farm store.
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by BatteryMill »

retailfanmitchell019 wrote: September 28th, 2021, 4:38 pm You know it's bad when the last stores in home states close...
They'd be better off rebranding the remaining territorial Kmarts as Sears, and closing the remaining mainland Kmarts. Not that rebranding to Sears makes a difference anyway.
Technically Kmart is still active in the first state they had stores though; that being California, where they had their first "bantam" store in Los Angeles before the Garden City, MI store opened.
Romr123 wrote: September 29th, 2021, 4:55 am Yeah, nothing special about Marshall, MI...KMart was in a strip center with a supermarket, Rite Aid, credit union, etc. Marshall's an unusually attractive little town with a relatively healthy downtown just a couple miles off the intersection of I-94 and I-69 and 20 minutes from Battle Creek which is where there are a couple of Meijer stores...juuust far enough to have kept KMart viable. B&Bs, restaurants, etc in the downtown; if I were to guess, the KMart will pretty quickly become a TSC or other farm store.
Hopefully Walmart, Target or Meijer make a move on the town.
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by kr.abs.swy »

The sense that Sears/Kmart has been run for cash for 15 years without any intention to build a meaningful business over the long term, regardless of the number of empty boxes and unemployed employees, is really not in dispute and has been discussed here. What I don't understand is their flailing attempts at the "dead end initiatives," as you mentioned. I remember there was briefly a small store in a mall in Portland that sold only fitness goods (maybe a partnership of some sort with someone like NordicTrack, but it was Sears-branded). There were the Kmarts added to a few of the Sears locations. There are the -- count them -- 3 Home and Life stores that are, ahem, not exactly blanketing the country. It feels like someone dreamt up a prototype, someone else approved the absolute bare minimum amount to test it, and it was doomed to fail because not enough was invested to make it viable. So why even bother? Just for example, the mall fitness store in Portland wasn't open long enough for anyone to know it was there. From what I've read, they didn't even bother to figure out a way to integrate the systems at the Bronx Sears/Kmarts, so people had to check out at Kmart before they left to go to Sears (seriously -- like would you ever expect to have to check out at the grocery side of SuperTarget before you go over to the housewares?). And they don't even have a Home & Life store in each time zone. I just don't understand the decision to invest a penny in these dead-end initiatives, because they didn't even invest enough to do a proper test. But what do I know ... I've never bankrupted a company.


storewanderer wrote: September 28th, 2021, 6:37 pm
retailfanmitchell019 wrote: September 28th, 2021, 4:38 pm You know it's bad when the last stores in home states close...
They'd be better off rebranding the remaining territorial Kmarts as Sears, and closing the remaining mainland Kmarts. Not that rebranding to Sears makes a difference anyway.
That Sears that is closing or about to close in IL was a flagship store of sorts for Sears. Modern and kept up facility (until they quit stocking it a couple years ago). I think it was a pet store of sorts for the various dead end initiatives Sears kept coming up with over the years.

The Kmart closing in Marshall, MI- I don't think it was a flagship store. Just looks like the usual Kmart. Old. I understand there is no competition in Marshall. When they started to close Kmarts in places with no competition a couple years ago it became very clear there was no plan to keep the chain going.
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by storewanderer »

kr.abs.swy wrote: September 29th, 2021, 10:50 pm The sense that Sears/Kmart has been run for cash for 15 years without any intention to build a meaningful business over the long term, regardless of the number of empty boxes and unemployed employees, is really not in dispute and has been discussed here. What I don't understand is their flailing attempts at the "dead end initiatives," as you mentioned. I remember there was briefly a small store in a mall in Portland that sold only fitness goods (maybe a partnership of some sort with someone like NordicTrack, but it was Sears-branded). There were the Kmarts added to a few of the Sears locations. There are the -- count them -- 3 Home and Life stores that are, ahem, not exactly blanketing the country. It feels like someone dreamt up a prototype, someone else approved the absolute bare minimum amount to test it, and it was doomed to fail because not enough was invested to make it viable. So why even bother? Just for example, the mall fitness store in Portland wasn't open long enough for anyone to know it was there. From what I've read, they didn't even bother to figure out a way to integrate the systems at the Bronx Sears/Kmarts, so people had to check out at Kmart before they left to go to Sears (seriously -- like would you ever expect to have to check out at the grocery side of SuperTarget before you go over to the housewares?). And they don't even have a Home & Life store in each time zone. I just don't understand the decision to invest a penny in these dead-end initiatives, because they didn't even invest enough to do a proper test. But what do I know ... I've never bankrupted a company.


Also remember Sears Essentials/Sears Grand- they had all of the Kmart consumables in those stores but they used the Sears cash register and Sears shelf tags, etc. It makes no sense why that co-branded Sears/Kmart needed to have the Kmart IT installed when Sears had previously handled all of those items.

Whatever the case may be Kmart's fate was sealed in the first bankruptcy. When they closed their newer stores (including half of the Super Kmarts) yet kept a ton of old 70's stores in the wrong neighborhoods around because they were cheap leases and "made more money" it was clear Kmart was going to have a really difficult future.

Sears... is a little different. Poorly run and unfocused for decades it was still quite a force in appliance retailing and certain other categories and despite ongoing struggles in softlines it was still selling a significant dollar volume of softlines. While Sears bumbled around a lot it was still moving a lot of merchandise even as recently as 5 years ago and still present in most major markets in the US up until about 3 years ago.

Ed Lampert is probably proud he kept the chains open as long as he did. Anyone else would have shut Kmart down by 2010 and probably shut Sears down in 2017, given the condition of the two chains.

I also think they were slated to shut down entirely in 2020, but due to COVID, stayed open longer.

As far as I am concerned it is over for Kmart. I don't like this lone Kmart remaining out west in Grass Valley, CA. The store doesn't play any music, it is overly clean inside, poorly stocked, neatly merchandised, and overpriced. The exterior of the facility is rather neutral looking (does not look run down). I am used to the typical Kmart experience of loud bad music, odd but consistent odor in the store, not very clean store, messy store, and poorly maintained exterior so this Grass Valley Store just doesn't do the trick. It just feels like a generic store with random items, not like Kmart.
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by BatteryMill »

storewanderer wrote: September 29th, 2021, 11:41 pm
kr.abs.swy wrote: September 29th, 2021, 10:50 pm The sense that Sears/Kmart has been run for cash for 15 years without any intention to build a meaningful business over the long term, regardless of the number of empty boxes and unemployed employees, is really not in dispute and has been discussed here. What I don't understand is their flailing attempts at the "dead end initiatives," as you mentioned. I remember there was briefly a small store in a mall in Portland that sold only fitness goods (maybe a partnership of some sort with someone like NordicTrack, but it was Sears-branded). There were the Kmarts added to a few of the Sears locations. There are the -- count them -- 3 Home and Life stores that are, ahem, not exactly blanketing the country. It feels like someone dreamt up a prototype, someone else approved the absolute bare minimum amount to test it, and it was doomed to fail because not enough was invested to make it viable. So why even bother? Just for example, the mall fitness store in Portland wasn't open long enough for anyone to know it was there. From what I've read, they didn't even bother to figure out a way to integrate the systems at the Bronx Sears/Kmarts, so people had to check out at Kmart before they left to go to Sears (seriously -- like would you ever expect to have to check out at the grocery side of SuperTarget before you go over to the housewares?). And they don't even have a Home & Life store in each time zone. I just don't understand the decision to invest a penny in these dead-end initiatives, because they didn't even invest enough to do a proper test. But what do I know ... I've never bankrupted a company.


Also remember Sears Essentials/Sears Grand- they had all of the Kmart consumables in those stores but they used the Sears cash register and Sears shelf tags, etc. It makes no sense why that co-branded Sears/Kmart needed to have the Kmart IT installed when Sears had previously handled all of those items.

Whatever the case may be Kmart's fate was sealed in the first bankruptcy. When they closed their newer stores (including half of the Super Kmarts) yet kept a ton of old 70's stores in the wrong neighborhoods around because they were cheap leases and "made more money" it was clear Kmart was going to have a really difficult future.

Sears... is a little different. Poorly run and unfocused for decades it was still quite a force in appliance retailing and certain other categories and despite ongoing struggles in softlines it was still selling a significant dollar volume of softlines. While Sears bumbled around a lot it was still moving a lot of merchandise even as recently as 5 years ago and still present in most major markets in the US up until about 3 years ago.

Ed Lampert is probably proud he kept the chains open as long as he did. Anyone else would have shut Kmart down by 2010 and probably shut Sears down in 2017, given the condition of the two chains.

I also think they were slated to shut down entirely in 2020, but due to COVID, stayed open longer.

As far as I am concerned it is over for Kmart. I don't like this lone Kmart remaining out west in Grass Valley, CA. The store doesn't play any music, it is overly clean inside, poorly stocked, neatly merchandised, and overpriced. The exterior of the facility is rather neutral looking (does not look run down). I am used to the typical Kmart experience of loud bad music, odd but consistent odor in the store, not very clean store, messy store, and poorly maintained exterior so this Grass Valley Store just doesn't do the trick. It just feels like a generic store with random items, not like Kmart.
I would have thought that Sears would have gone down slower had the pandemic not happened.

Also about Kmart/Sears' home-state stores closing... this implies that they're not really going to do stuff like film commercials or test stuff out, right?
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by Super S »

BatteryMill wrote: September 29th, 2021, 11:55 pm

I would have thought that Sears would have gone down slower had the pandemic not happened.

Also about Kmart/Sears' home-state stores closing... this implies that they're not really going to do stuff like film commercials or test stuff out, right?
Have there been ANY Sears or Kmart commercials in the last few years?

JCPenney at least is making new commercials and gives you the impression that they are attempting to stay in business.
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by cjd »

I've noticed that too RE the JCPenney commercials lately. And I do hear about people still ordering stuff from them online. No, I don't believe Sears or Kmart have had any commercials in a few years at least that I have seen. I believe even Christmas 2019 they had stopped doing any kind of holiday promotions or circulars.
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by Bagels »

cjd wrote: October 2nd, 2021, 8:51 am I've noticed that too RE the JCPenney commercials lately. And I do hear about people still ordering stuff from them online. No, I don't believe Sears or Kmart have had any commercials in a few years at least that I have seen. I believe even Christmas 2019 they had stopped doing any kind of holiday promotions or circulars.
Sears definitely ran print ads for the 2019 Holiday season. It was an abbreviated ad (the 2018 ad was not), but it had a handful of great deals, including a $10 off $10 coupon.

They didn’t run print ads for 2020, and I don’t recall a virtual ad either.
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Re: Is 2021 finally the end for Sears/Kmart?

Post by BatteryMill »

Super S wrote: October 2nd, 2021, 6:18 am
BatteryMill wrote: September 29th, 2021, 11:55 pm

I would have thought that Sears would have gone down slower had the pandemic not happened.

Also about Kmart/Sears' home-state stores closing... this implies that they're not really going to do stuff like film commercials or test stuff out, right?
Have there been ANY Sears or Kmart commercials in the last few years?

JCPenney at least is making new commercials and gives you the impression that they are attempting to stay in business.
Maybe some print ads, but I hardly recall seeing such in the past year or so. I recall seeing a Sears Clean commercial recently, but it dates back to at least 2014 (and I am not sure that banner is still tied to Sears too).

Plus, what about the whole testing part?

And a few more locations in NYC are slated to close too...
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