Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Predicting the demise of Sears & Kmart since 2017!
wnetmacman
Forum Moderator
Forum Moderator
Posts: 994
Joined: January 17th, 2010, 2:36 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 44 times
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by wnetmacman »

storewanderer wrote: January 7th, 2019, 7:50 pm I think Sears Outlets are owned by Sears Hometown, I don't think they are under Sears Holdings. Confusing web here.
That's correct. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores (SHOS) is the owner. They were spun off in 2012. I've noticed several Hometown stores going out of business lately due to declining sales. Also, Eddie Lampert is one of the majority owners (either personally or through ESL Investments) of SHOS, so it's possible he could bring this down with the former mothership.
storewanderer
Posts: 14379
Joined: February 23rd, 2009, 3:54 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 298 times
Contact:
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by storewanderer »

wnetmacman wrote: January 7th, 2019, 8:02 pm
storewanderer wrote: January 7th, 2019, 7:50 pm I think Sears Outlets are owned by Sears Hometown, I don't think they are under Sears Holdings. Confusing web here.
That's correct. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores (SHOS) is the owner. They were spun off in 2012. I've noticed several Hometown stores going out of business lately due to declining sales. Also, Eddie Lampert is one of the majority owners (either personally or through ESL Investments) of SHOS, so it's possible he could bring this down with the former mothership.
There was a fairly rapid growth in count of Hometown Stores around 2012 when the spin off took place. They were trying to market it as a growth company. The problem was Sears. There was a longtime Hometown Store up at Lake Tahoe. One time I was in there and the owner was really upset because one of the casinos 2 minutes away had come down and wanted to order about 200 small refrigerators for their hotel rooms and had picked out the refrigerators from Sears.com and brought the item number over to him to order. Sears Corporate would not allow him to get that item for the customer and forced the customer to either buy it from the full line Sears in Reno or order it through Sears.com. This owner was also very upset that most of the Craftsman line was taken out of his store in favor of offering it at the Kmart 20 minutes down the road. The store was there forever (since the 80's) but closed not long after this.
Knight
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 509
Joined: February 7th, 2016, 8:48 pm
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 4 times
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by Knight »

storewanderer wrote: January 6th, 2019, 10:36 pm I am sure this is a very fluid situation but Reuters and various other outlets are reporting today that Lampert's bid did not meet creditor requirements. As such a group called Abacus has been selected to run the full chain liquidation.

Inventory levels look terrible at the stores I've been to the past couple months (all Kmarts). The liquidators are going to need to bring in some merchandise of their own to generate interest in these sales.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sear ... SKCN1P103R

It will sure be interesting to see what comes of some of the "better" Kmart real estate (PR, Guam, assorted other stores that lack competition scattered around).
The end of Sears Holdings is here. It has been expected for awhile.

Personally, I will miss Sears and Sears Auto Center. I will not miss Kmart.
pseudo3d
Posts: 3851
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 7:01 pm
Has thanked: 5 times
Been thanked: 77 times
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote: January 7th, 2019, 8:07 pm
wnetmacman wrote: January 7th, 2019, 8:02 pm
storewanderer wrote: January 7th, 2019, 7:50 pm I think Sears Outlets are owned by Sears Hometown, I don't think they are under Sears Holdings. Confusing web here.
That's correct. Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores (SHOS) is the owner. They were spun off in 2012. I've noticed several Hometown stores going out of business lately due to declining sales. Also, Eddie Lampert is one of the majority owners (either personally or through ESL Investments) of SHOS, so it's possible he could bring this down with the former mothership.
There was a fairly rapid growth in count of Hometown Stores around 2012 when the spin off took place. They were trying to market it as a growth company. The problem was Sears. There was a longtime Hometown Store up at Lake Tahoe. One time I was in there and the owner was really upset because one of the casinos 2 minutes away had come down and wanted to order about 200 small refrigerators for their hotel rooms and had picked out the refrigerators from Sears.com and brought the item number over to him to order. Sears Corporate would not allow him to get that item for the customer and forced the customer to either buy it from the full line Sears in Reno or order it through Sears.com. This owner was also very upset that most of the Craftsman line was taken out of his store in favor of offering it at the Kmart 20 minutes down the road. The store was there forever (since the 80's) but closed not long after this.
The other problem with the Sears Hometown spin-off is some odd rules about where Sears Hometown stores could be located, so if there was a Kmart or Sears in the vicinity, it couldn't operate or couldn't operate completely. Best case scenario is SHOS taking some of the best-performing stores from Sears and then disconnecting from Lampert entirely.
marshd1000
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 587
Joined: March 2nd, 2009, 1:46 pm
Been thanked: 12 times
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by marshd1000 »

arizonaguy
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1107
Joined: July 12th, 2013, 6:07 pm
Been thanked: 35 times
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by arizonaguy »

marshd1000 wrote: January 8th, 2019, 10:15 am The end is here!

https://www.king5.com/mobile/article/ne ... -626904079
Not so fast. It looks like the plug may not be pulled yet.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/08/business ... index.html
reymann
Personnel Manager
Personnel Manager
Posts: 279
Joined: August 13th, 2014, 8:25 pm
Been thanked: 27 times
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by reymann »

another band-aid solution to keep sears alive. it maybe buys only a few more months at most to keep sears alive.
arizonaguy
Store Manager
Store Manager
Posts: 1107
Joined: July 12th, 2013, 6:07 pm
Been thanked: 35 times
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by arizonaguy »

reymann wrote: January 8th, 2019, 10:52 am another band-aid solution to keep sears alive. it maybe buys only a few more months at most to keep sears alive.
Absolutely. I don't see any way that the chain makes it to 2020 in any way close to its current form.

I can see Sears.com and Kmart.com becoming online retailers under different ownership at some point, but that's it.
Super S
Posts: 2690
Joined: April 1st, 2009, 9:27 pm
Has thanked: 11 times
Been thanked: 61 times
Status: Offline

Re: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by Super S »

arizonaguy wrote: January 8th, 2019, 10:57 am
reymann wrote: January 8th, 2019, 10:52 am another band-aid solution to keep sears alive. it maybe buys only a few more months at most to keep sears alive.
Absolutely. I don't see any way that the chain makes it to 2020 in any way close to its current form.

I can see Sears.com and Kmart.com becoming online retailers under different ownership at some point, but that's it.
I am absolutely shocked that ANY offer from Lampert is being considered at this point. All he has proven is that he has the ability to destroy two once-great retailers. Sears and Kmart are already gone from many areas, and the remaining stores leave a lot to be desired.

Montgomery Ward came back as an online retailer, but it hasn't really made much of any impact.
cjd
Assistant Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Posts: 624
Joined: August 18th, 2018, 6:54 am
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 6 times
Status: Offline

Re: Sears Fears: The Final Days of Sears & Kmart, 2019

Post by cjd »

Honestly I'd like to see fast Eddie end up loosing a lot of money at the end, and somehow SHOS survive separately and expand, selling Kenmore and Craftsman. But that's just childhood nostalgia talking. There's little point now as they've (Eddie) has essentially ruined their reputation.

To me Kmart is a joke at this point and most of the stores they have left seem to be the old crappy ones. The Sears here is still pretty nice, early 2000s era store. It's just that it's a ghost town. I will miss Sears when it's gone. But they aren't like they used to be and the store gets such little traffic it's just sad to visit.
Post Reply