Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

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

Post by rwsandiego »

What the heck are we going to talk about when they finally go under? Oh, wait - Macy's, JCP, Target...
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by storewanderer »

I think we will see a bit more before they finally go down for good. I expect Kmart to be formally separated from Sears.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by wnetmacman »

storewanderer wrote:I think we will see a bit more before they finally go down for good. I expect Kmart to be formally separated from Sears.
I'm not convinced we'll have that much time. I suspect we'll see Kmart killed off like a bad drama show. They are definitely the weaker of the two stores. I think if SHC were to do that, they could *potentially* save Sears.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by Super S »

wnetmacman wrote:
storewanderer wrote:I think we will see a bit more before they finally go down for good. I expect Kmart to be formally separated from Sears.
I'm not convinced we'll have that much time. I suspect we'll see Kmart killed off like a bad drama show. They are definitely the weaker of the two stores. I think if SHC were to do that, they could *potentially* save Sears.
The only way that I am convinced that either name will survive is if they end up under different owners that Eddie Lampert has absolutely nothing to do with. With that said, I could see Kmart eliminated, with Sears possibly hanging on a little longer. I think both names are too far gone at this point for either to survive on their own.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by rwsandiego »

Here's an interesting read about how Sears could have avoided all this.

Coincidentally, a friend and I were talking about how Sears could have been Amazon had they adapted the catalog to e-commerce instead of killing it back in 1993.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by Andrew T. »

Sears *was* an online retailer.
The Spring 1993 annual catalog contained instructions for ordering merchandise by computer via the Prodigy, GEnie, and CompuServe online services. And since Sears owned a stake in Prodigy, you could buy the service itself from the catalog, too!

Sears took all this, and threw it away.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by wnetmacman »

Andrew T. wrote:Sears *was* an online retailer.
The Spring 1993 annual catalog contained instructions for ordering merchandise by computer via the Prodigy, GEnie, and CompuServe online services. And since Sears owned a stake in Prodigy, you could buy the service itself from the catalog, too!

Sears took all this, and threw it away.
Sears didn't throw it away; it became obsolete. Prodigy, GEnie and Compuserve all were shut out by a World Wide Web that didn't require subscriptions, and thus they adapted later into the 90's into a standard online retailer. ALL of the brick and mortar retailers were slow to adopt online sales, because they saw the writing on the wall that the stores would become obsolete.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by storewanderer »

I see they released another round of closures today and sadly my local store in Sparks, NV is on the list. How I will miss the partially lit store, leaking ceiling, strange odor in the store, out of stocks, and lack of employees. Well, it had a good run. It was open since 1967, so 50 years, is quite a run.

Curiously, I see the shopping center the store is in was sold in February. https://www.washoecounty.us/assessor/ca ... -23&Card=1 Ouch to the buyer. This is a bad part of town and I do not see this being filled anytime soon. A Shopko closed across the street 15 years ago and after sitting vacant for a decade, they finally demolished it as it was costing too much to maintain. There is also a closed Lowe's down the block (built as Eagle in the mid 1990's) part of which is currently being converted into a call center.

Another odd thing in this shopping center a few months ago a very longtime donut shop (former Winchells) closed. It was there forever also and though it stopped being Winchells in the mid 90's, had the old yellow tables, old marketing photos still posted, old menu board, etc.
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by jamcool »

One of the Kmarts to close is in Blythe CA-the only other mass retailers in that town are Albertsons and Rite Aid. I expect Walmart to take over the Kmart site
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Re: Sears/Kmart Death Watch 2017

Post by wnetmacman »

Here's the full list of yesterday's closures. Ohio seems to be particularly hard hit this time.

Sears June 6 Closure List
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