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Sears, Kmart to close 43 more stores as retail crisis continues
- Thread starter facetheslayer92
- Start date
Syphon Filter
Member
I like kmart, hope they stick around.
How About No
Member
Kmart is Sad Walmart
Syphon Filter
Member
shouldn't it still be around though? there is a market for it.
Retail? Yes. But a lot of retailers are going to die. It's not going to be pretty.
fluffydelusions
Member
I think the only ones not losing money is Walmart and target?
polyh3dron
Banned
no, it's because most sears and k-mart locations look like dumps that haven't been renovated since 1988. they're dark and dreary-looking relics of a bygone era, at least the surviving ones in los angeles, that is.
Costco. Home Depot. Both are pretty much things that will be hard to duplicate online.
Oh yeah. Don't buy tech at PC Richards, just appliances. Surprisingly B&H has great deals though.
Best Buy is doing fine as well, I think. Generally the major big box stores are all healthy.
The sad mall where I grew up already lost 2 anchor stores. Sears and some other regional department store are all that are left and neither is in good shape.
It's one of the worst places for weather in the country and there's not a lot of money spent on outdoor places for people to spend time when it is good. I don't know what the elderly mall walkers are going to do when the mall goes under.
It's one of the worst places for weather in the country and there's not a lot of money spent on outdoor places for people to spend time when it is good. I don't know what the elderly mall walkers are going to do when the mall goes under.
Septimus Prime
Member
BassForever
Member
If you work in retail and you don't work at walmart, target, or a few other key thriving stores you need to bail out asap.
Yeah they do? What do you consider an appliance?
Dylan Sexbang
Banned
Feels good in a dying retail market to be in a grocery store company that's expanding consistently. Plenty of opportunity for me to go up, or just hold a decent position until I can find a new career
Angelus Errare
Banned
Seems the corporation gods are not pleased with us mere mortals. We need to cut more taxes and sacrifice more so that they can keep these stores upon and rain down jobs to us plebs. Maybe we should move towards human sacrifice to appease the corporation gods. Well I guess republicans are trying to get there with the whole healthcare thing...
Syphon Filter
Member
how come?
jossueinacoma
Member
Man, I remember going to K-Mart as a kid and always getting a slice of pizza on the way out. I think that's where I got my N64 too. Well at least have their in store music to rememner them by. https://archive.org/details/attentionkmartshoppers
In NJ, the shelving and everything is old. It hasnt been remodeled since I went there as a kid. No E-commerce stuff like you will find in Target. I like it. It makes me nostalgic. I usually go every year around Christmas time.
Syphon Filter
Member
btw did kmart change their branding colors to blue? I went inside and the shirts and artwork was blue.
Nydius
Member
"Free Gift!" was one of the ways Sears tried to generate foot traffic. For a while, it was tied to their store credit card application - new applicants who were approved (which was practically everyone) got a Free Gift! They've also used the Free Gift promo to try to get people to come in and shop, i.e. "Spend $X on Craftsman tools and get a Free Gift!"
It was a very Sears thing.
Retail will never die; therefor it isn't dying.
It's receding due to increases in competition; this will continue, but it will never die out. In certain areas retail is thriving and expanding.
SciencePilot
Member
I haven't been to either of these stores since I was a kid living with my parents. I actually don't even know of any around me.
Septimus Prime
Member
In hindsight, sure, but for every Netflix, there's also a Groupon or a Snapchat. The problem with Blockbuster and Sears is that they were too big to be agile. In Blockbuster's case, they even launched a competing DVD-in-the-mail service that was better than what Netflix was doing at the time (as well as a kiosk service that was arguably as good as Redbox), but it just came too late to challenge the first mover advantage.
Oh, okay. I guess I never knew that because I didn't shop at Sears.
Fancyarcher
Member
Yeah, they screwed themselves over with poor business planning, though I'll admit as someone who went to sears a lot growing-up, it's gonna be sad to see them go, mostly for nostalgic reasons mind you.
TAJ
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
In the '80s Walmart was Sad K-Mart.
facetheslayer92
Member
For reference, Kmart was the second largest retailer in the United States at the start of the 90s and I believe the largest in terms of locations. By the early 2000s it was even being lapped by Target in sales and ten times over by Walmart. Only about 600 locations remain.
I still can't wrap my head around a company who was famous for mail order not being able to see the potential of the internet.
As for physical stores, I went into a Kmart location last year for the first time since 2007 out of curiosity and partially to see if they had any last gen games on clearance... they didn't have a games section anymore. They had one small shelf of movies, some very overpriced TV's all under 35", but they still had a very large section devoted entirely music CD's, in fact I think the CD section had actually expanded since 2007.... like what the hell are they thinking?
As for physical stores, I went into a Kmart location last year for the first time since 2007 out of curiosity and partially to see if they had any last gen games on clearance... they didn't have a games section anymore. They had one small shelf of movies, some very overpriced TV's all under 35", but they still had a very large section devoted entirely music CD's, in fact I think the CD section had actually expanded since 2007.... like what the hell are they thinking?
Washer / dryer / full size freezer / dishwashers / stoves / ranges
They code TVs under "electronics" now (source: used to work for Walmart), really haven't heard anyone call a TV an appliance in ages
I can picture the conversation in a Netflix board room one day not too long ago:
"Hey you know how people get confused by the fact that Netflix has streaming video and also still sends people DVDs if they want them?"
"No."
"Well, I have a solution anyway!"
GruntOfAction
Member
My local J C Pennys is on the way out and still hiring people to work there despite the store closing sale signs.
Brawly Likes to Brawl
Member
This shit is so comfortable.
Let them sit and rot. We had an old Ames store here for years that sat abandoned, was only torn down and replaced with a Hobby Lobby in the last few years.
And Home Depot and Lowe's with Home Depot probably being the current market leader.
fluffydelusions
Member
I hear costco is the best of the bunch to work at
Jazzy Network
Member
Sears's Kenmore brand is pretty good and well priced. They should just stick to that. No one goes to Sears to buy cheap clothing when you have stores like Old Navy and American Eagle that already sell better clothing for same prices.
They're licensing out all their brands
Mighty Chin
Banned
Sears held out too long and never adapted.
SEARS didn't need a brand-new business plan though. All they had to do was take the old SEARS catalog and put it online. That's all Amazon really was for the longest time. SEARS has no real excuse for not doing it first.
Went into a Kmart today for the first time in probably 5 years and it was really sad.
The store layout is trash, and seems like they want to do everything, so is like a jack of all, master of none store. Small selection of all sorts of random things all strewn about. Not really sure who is buying toys and sees washers and decodes that should get added to the list.
Store was also a mess. Looks worse than most thrift stores with stuff everywhere and still having a ton of empty space. Walked past three or four aisles where there was maybe a couple handfuls of small box items in the aisle.
Clothing looks like the one thing they could try to get right to make money, they had some brand name stuff in there cheap, but once again couldn't really tell what was going on. Signs said it was women's clothes but had tons of men's racks in there.
If they really want to survive, they need to take some time and come up with two or three really well thought out layouts and try to get a couple "flagship" store models to start. They need to really think about what they want to be and focus on it. Existing like it is 1989 still isn't going to help them make it to 2019.
The store layout is trash, and seems like they want to do everything, so is like a jack of all, master of none store. Small selection of all sorts of random things all strewn about. Not really sure who is buying toys and sees washers and decodes that should get added to the list.
Store was also a mess. Looks worse than most thrift stores with stuff everywhere and still having a ton of empty space. Walked past three or four aisles where there was maybe a couple handfuls of small box items in the aisle.
Clothing looks like the one thing they could try to get right to make money, they had some brand name stuff in there cheap, but once again couldn't really tell what was going on. Signs said it was women's clothes but had tons of men's racks in there.
If they really want to survive, they need to take some time and come up with two or three really well thought out layouts and try to get a couple "flagship" store models to start. They need to really think about what they want to be and focus on it. Existing like it is 1989 still isn't going to help them make it to 2019.
Well, the city I live in still has a jcpenny in it, mostly because you either get your clothes from Walmart or jcpenny, so I doubt they will close here unless the whole company goes under. We also have a sears on the crappy rundown side of town that mostly has small businesses running. I have never set foot in it to my memory, but I think they only sell appliances there, so I'd guess that's the only reason it's still around.
On a side note, I live about an hour from my closest mall, and as a kid and teen I thought it was the coolest place ever since it had all the rare stores,(was the only gamestop in my area until I was an adult when it came to my town). I went there a few months ago and I was so surprised at how barebones it was and how many sections were empty where there were no stores left, kinda sad to see now. Ever since I met my fiancé who is from Nashville, I got to visit their malls and I loved them and glad to them thriving there. It was also the first time I had been on an escalator ever.(yes I know, I'm a country bumpkin)
On a side note, I live about an hour from my closest mall, and as a kid and teen I thought it was the coolest place ever since it had all the rare stores,(was the only gamestop in my area until I was an adult when it came to my town). I went there a few months ago and I was so surprised at how barebones it was and how many sections were empty where there were no stores left, kinda sad to see now. Ever since I met my fiancé who is from Nashville, I got to visit their malls and I loved them and glad to them thriving there. It was also the first time I had been on an escalator ever.(yes I know, I'm a country bumpkin)
sixteen-bit
Member
In 10 years the only retail stores are gonna be Walmart and Amazon, right?
Sears Corporstion is one of the worst run companies in the US, and almost definitely the most poorly run retailer... and it's not even all that close.