How a Kmart Brand Took Over Australia

[submariner]

A good timeline of Kmart's upward trajectory in Australia in recent years:

[rwsandiego]

Nicely done video. Seems like Westfarmers has devoted resources to improve Kmart. Unlike in the US where Eddie Lampert sucked everything he could out of it.

[storewanderer]

What is most interesting is how they started basically the same as the US operation... and through various efforts on merchandising and upgrading the stores they turned into something completely different.

[Romr123]

Looks like ANKO to me is what Sears was in the 60s/70s and could have turned into again with better leadership.

[storewanderer]

Looks like ANKO to me is what Sears was in the 60s/70s and could have turned into again with better leadership.

I don't think Sears could help itself. Sears was already gone in the 90's, it just takes time for something so big to "fail."

Eddie and Alwyn Lewis may have had the right idea trying to put the Sears brands/appliances in Kmart locations (maybe not converting to Sears Essentials though), but by that point Sears already had a lousy reputation, Kmart had a lousy reputation, trust was lost for many consumers. They could have done things to rebuild the reputation with consumers maybe but after decades of consumer mistreatment from Sears between appliance repair issues and questionable credit card practices more people were "hating" Sears with every passing year.

This Australia division didn't have any of the baggage of the unfocused US Kmart Corporation... or the link to also failing Sears.

[pseudo3d]

Looks like ANKO to me is what Sears was in the 60s/70s and could have turned into again with better leadership.

I don't think Sears could help itself. Sears was already gone in the 90's, it just takes time for something so big to "fail."

Eddie and Alwyn Lewis may have had the right idea trying to put the Sears brands/appliances in Kmart locations (maybe not converting to Sears Essentials though), but by that point Sears already had a lousy reputation, Kmart had a lousy reputation, trust was lost for many consumers. They could have done things to rebuild the reputation with consumers maybe but after decades of consumer mistreatment from Sears between appliance repair issues and questionable credit card practices more people were "hating" Sears with every passing year.

This Australia division didn't have any of the baggage of the unfocused US Kmart Corporation... or the link to also failing Sears.

After around 2008 SHLD stopped trying, and the prototypes that they were fooling around with just got abandoned. In 2005 things were far from beyond repair for either chain, especially as Sears Roebuck had a LOT of money and assets. In that time, there were rumors that SHLD was looking at buying Safeway, which we roll our eyes at given what happened to Sears and Kmart, but at the time really could've helped both chains if it wasn't mismanaged.

[rwsandiego]

Looks like ANKO to me is what Sears was in the 60s/70s and could have turned into again with better leadership.

ANKO is a store brand, not a retailer. It would be the equivalent of "Kenmore" at Sears.

[submariner]

Looks like ANKO to me is what Sears was in the 60s/70s and could have turned into again with better leadership.

ANKO is a store brand, not a retailer. It would be the equivalent of "Kenmore" at Sears.

Yes and no, there was a short-lived Anko store concept trialed in Seattle, but it ran into the COVID lockdowns and I think Wesfarmers decided to pull chocks rather than ride it out.