Sears On The Verge Of Liquidation, Not Bankruptcy

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WhatInThe

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The once great retail giant is on the verge of liquidation, not bankruptcy if enough financial bids don't come in by 4 this afternoon. They are hours away from being no more.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/27/sears-may-need-to-liquidate-if-no-bid-comes-in-by-tomorrow.html

When a company like this, a large company goes out it took years if not decades of missteps to get to this point. When the autopsy is done the experts will probably find issues going back into last century. I personally think they failed to make their merger with Kmart work to their advantage. Theoretically Sears should have been a Target on steroids.

Best of luck to all employees affected by this.
 

Falcon said:
Too bad ! I always LOVED shopping @ SEARS. Tools, furniture, clothes; almost
anything you'd need.
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Me too .. they have been gone from these parts for years now. The alternatives just don't cut it for me. I've started making most purchases
online now.
 

Pinky said:
Me too .. they have been gone from these parts for years now. The alternatives just don't cut it for me. I've started making most purchases
online now.
Click to expand...


And that a large contributing factor to their troubles. Others are feeling the same effect. Toy's are Us for example.
 
J.C. Penney is next....that companies stock is struggling to hold a value of $1. Unless there are major changes in that company, they will be in the same shape as Sears by 2020.
 
I used to get a lot of good quality reasonably priced things I liked there, but their customer service, selection etc went downhill so bad it was aggrivation to even think about going there . What's wrong with me, lol? Too many stores I liked have been replaced by something a little bit different that I just don't like as much: Macy's for Foleys dept store, Kohl's (yuk!) for Mervyns, B B & B for Linens & things, and even BB&B is slipping.
 
I actually never thought I'd be an online shopper, but I must say that it is convenient, and a big factor is that the prices are often lower. Add to that,
no shipping/handling fee .. and - you've got me.

Sears quality went downhill years ago. Then they became something of a
warehouse type store.

I used to be a big Sears catalogue shopper, as was my mother. It was like Christmas, every year at the end of the summer, to receive a big box filled with back-to-school clothes and shoes.
 
It's ironic that the original "mail order" retailer has fallen victim to the online ordering craze. They should have stayed true to their roots.
 
I remember going to the big Sears Store when we went shopping in Spokane, and it seemed like they had just about everything, from clothes to bedding, to lawn mowers. We even bought my first saddle for my horse from the Sears Store.
The town where I lived was about 5,000 people, and we had a tiny little catalog store there. I remember going along with my mother, and she would stand and look through the catalogs (it seemed like HOURS) until she found everything she wanted and the lady that ran the store had it all ordered for Mom.
I think that we went back to the catalog store to pick up the merchandise when it came in, as opposed to having it sent to our house. I don’t know if that was an option, or it might have been cheaper for us to just go down to the store and pick up the order;sort of like picking up an online order from the Walmart store works nowadays.

Walmart seems to be what everyone else wants to be, because you have so many options for buying. You can go to the store and buy it, you can order online (like Amazon) and have it shipped to you (and Walmart is also offering some free shipping items now), or you can order online and pick it up at the store, with no shipping cost.
 
Sears has one foot in the grave and the other slipping on a banana peel. Their downhill path started many years ago when they announced they were "moving upscale". That lost them their traditional customers and failed to attract the high rollers that they had targeted.
 
We went from having maybe 5 or 6 Sears in our area down to the last one in the county closing within 2-3 weeks. Wow. I think a lot of brick and mortar stores just cannot compete with online shopping. I was at one of our malls less than a week before Christmas, to pick up my glasses. The place was all but deserted. I parked pretty far from where the store was in the mall, and I am not sure if I saw more than 30-40 people walking through.
 
Another nail in their coffin was big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes selling appliances. They offered price matching (or better) and FREE delivery. Sears stuck by their gouging delivery fees and it cost them.

More than once I found appliances I liked at Sears but I ended up at Lowes because of the price match/free delivery. Sears wanted $65 and UP to deliver... I'll take FREE, thanks.
 
I suppose that I'm to blame I don't think that I've been in a Sears store in over 30 years.

IMO Sears, Penney's, Montgomery Ward, all had sort of an identity crisis. They did not have the glitz and glamor of a department store and they didn't have the reputation for inexpensive items like a Kmart or a Target.
 
Sears lost their good customer service and got more expensive -- a prescription for failure. I was looking for a particular small kitchen appliance recently and I was having trouble finding it, so I looked on the Sears website. They were charging substantially more for the item (same item number and brand) than anyone else and also had a whopper of a shipping cost. Needless to say, I didn't buy it from them. They are just completely out of touch with the market.
 
I have yet to order anything online yet. I shop at Walmart. I like to feel and try stuff on before buying it. Dollars a has everything. Sears has closed all their Canadian stores. Sears was great for repair parts but no ons fixes their own stuff anymore.
 
WhatInThe said:
The once great retail giant is on the verge of liquidation, not bankruptcy if enough financial bids don't come in by 4 this afternoon. They are hours away from being no more.

Click to expand...

Saw it begin to happen a couple decades ago when their Craftsman line became less than

The capper for me was buying a Craftsman bench top drill press for $100
The motor went south after just a few uses (no accessible brushes)
Took it back
They'd replace the motor

....for $100

The real clincher was finding the very same unit (different name and color) at Harbor Freight

.....for $39
 
I have been hearing teases on the news that there may be assistance on the horizon for Sears. Not sure what that is. Camper, I am with you. I shop online for some things, like electronics, and hard items. I would rather see the clothes I buy before I choose them.
 
I've been trying to follow this and it seems the hedgefund owner Lampert seems to shuffling money around like a shell game. Also it seems conflict of interest galore. Yeh they disclose it but are the fund's best interest for the company & shareholders or returns for his hedgefund members .

He's chairman of Sears, majority stock holder and hedgefund owner all involved with or associated with Sears.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Sears-facing-liquidation-says-it-will-close-80-13496024.php
 
When Sears took on the “Lands End” brand, I thought they were making a change for the better. I had bought Lands End long before Sears took on the line. The quality was very good and the winter coats were not only stylish, but also comparable to North Face.

As for tools, like many others, I have a huge tool chest and cabinet full of Craftsman tools. I probably have easily around $8-10,000.00 worth of Craftsman tools, including my chests and boxes. I always enjoyed working on cars, so accumulating tools almost became another hobby.

Retail is very competitive. We have become mainly Kohls shoppers. We used to enjoy going to the outlets, but with some of the deals Kohls run, their prices are in some instances better than the outlets, including Under Armour, which is, (in my opinion), way over priced. UA is just not a good value, however, because I umpire college baseball, I am compelled to wear the UA label.
 
I am also sorry to see them go but like Wards perhaps they will become a virtual
store online.

Sears was perceived as square and uncool by younger shoppers.
So is Penneys, unfairly I think. That is a big reason.
 
I like Sears appliances. I have a Sears 'you name it' in the kitchen, and everything Sears in the garden shed. I have to complain about my Sears washing machine- it lasted only 21 years. Dryer is going on 27. Plus Sears is great on servicing their products. Got to admit that when I think of buying clothes, Sears doesn't immediately jump into my mind. Sears gone? It's like the passing of a faithful friend.
 

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