"Sears Holdings (SHLD), which owns both Sears and Kmart, made the announcement Thursday, building on months of similar closings aimed at getting the company on solid financial footing. Closeout sales at the affected locations will begin next week, the company said in a press release, and all 103 locations will be shuttered by May"

http://money.cnn.com/2018/01/04/news/companies/sears-kmart-stores-closing/index.html



exclusive photo of Panzer shopping online likely leading to the shutdown of even more Malls

not the fault of the consumers

eddy lampert is one of the worst human beings on wall street - he has deliberately destroyed the stores as a stock play

Ok.
That’s how capitalism works. Buyers get a say so, running a household is just like a business.

you saying all those retail stores that have gone out of business at Malls and elsewhere by the dozens are because of investors trading on the stock market ?

No, because I shop where I save money as well as get what I want and the service I need. That’s part of capitalism too. Like I said, a household is like a business.

I am amazed Kmart is event around anymore. Target and Walmart pushed them out of the Bay Area almost complete by 2000. Target has a good clean store, helpful employees, and a competent price match policy that they honor. Walmart lacks in these areas and in my experience won't honor the price matching, but they do have a strong online presence that helps keep them afloat. Plus, sometimes you can't wait 2-3 days for toothpaste from Amazon. There will always be a need for some B&M stores. Best Buy has also done an excellent job with its price match, return and online ordering options. Store pick up for free shipping. Plus, online customer service is fairly good.

Kmart was practically dead before the internet took over shopping, at least around here. Same with Sears. They were loosing out before, Amazon and the like was just the final nail in the coffin.

The local Kmart has been gone for so long that I don't recall when it happened (probably about ten years ago). Not only could I care less, I probably contributed to it since I have placed around two thousand orders with Amazon in the past ten years.

I don't feel so bad because I know it isn't my fault. All our money goes to doctors and pharmaceutical companies. Literally.

They have been blowing smoke for years.
The name Sears Holding Co. is really Kmart who bought Sears and the rights to the name. Sears had it all, with big catalog business that could have rivaled and more Amazon but did not have the vision. But they ate their young, treating staff, employees and customers badly.
Love my Craftsman tools with lifetime warranties, but not the "new" Sears (Kmart) attitude by Lampert. Feel bad for the employees though.
They are going broke because I had to go somewhere else to get what I needed.

The employees, at the ground level, are always the ones that suffer the most. I used to work for a company that did not see the future when the PC was becoming a mainstream household item. It ate them (the company) alive and the only people that came out ahead were the top management folks.

Sears should have been the industry leader with on-line ordering... they were too ponderous to realize that putting the famous Sears catalog online would be their future.

It's too bad really, it's one of the few "mall" type stores I could stand to be in.

I do miss being able to run to Sears for some Craftsman tools. Lifetime warranty back in the day and easily good enough quality for non-pro work. Been a long time since they were here. They failed to move to new locations where the business was moving, staying in what became a bad part of town.

please take a look at what eddy lampert did.

he destroyed the stores on purpose, sold off all of the most important brands, and has been demolishing the old buildings to sell off the land or build up other businesses unrelated to the original stores. he has profited immensely from doing this, and it was his plan from the beginning. he puts gordon gecko to shame.

One stop shopping is what we want in modern times and Amazon delivers like crazy on this.Everything is perfect with them so far.Prime,customer service,amazing website,on time delivery and the huge selection of stuff to buy.The walk in stores that follow this stick around.Target is an example of a company that changed its tactics for the better when it started selling food to become a one stop shopping place.At first people,myself included,found it very weird that Target sold food but it works and its my go to place to shop nowadays.

Another thing Amazon succeeds at is their prices and how they know the internet has changed the consumer base when it comes to getting great deals.I remember a huge Compusa opening a block away from my house.My world became a better place as a PC nerd but was instantly crushed by the ridiculous prices they were asking.People would walk in and then the smarter ones would walk a few blocks away to Best buy and get huge discount on the same piece.Compusa became like a place for me to window shop to see what I wanted and then either walk to Best Buy or get an even better deal online.The walk in places need to have close to online prices on their products all year round to compete.You don't bend to lower profit to compete with online you will fail,plain and simple.

The downfall of Amazon will be its ambition though.They are growing at an alarming rate with new warehouses opening up all over tri-state area.Too many employees over the years will cause it to crumble by asking for higher wages,pensions,better health services etc.The greed monster 1% percenters will not allow their ridiculous profits to drop,prices will rise and in the ashes will grow a new smaller company that will follow the same principles that caused Amazon to grow in first place.

DBL post

Haggart, not only is your headline sensationalist but it's also wrong in regards to both Sears and Kmart. Both retail chains have been in severe decline since the late 1990's (well before Amazon was anything significant) and Kmart even filed for bankruptcy (I believe it was in 2001) and the ONLY reason Kmart survived was because it was bought by Sears.


E-Commerce has certainly accelerated the decline of Kmart and Sears but it was not the initial fundamental cause.

I predict that most of the warehouse employees will be automated/roboticized within the next 5-10 years.

Haggart sensationalist?? Surely you jest!!

The employees themselves can be a source of income if the system is properly gamed.
It's standard MBA stuff, ie internalize the profits but externalize the costs, and the best example I've heard recently (admittedly on the internet) is Wal-Mart.
Once they've 'taken over' an area, they pay so little that the government has to step in with food stamps...which tend to get redeemed in Wal-mart.
So, the government are directly contributing to the wealth of a family that are already worth more than 50% of the US population...or so the story goes.

I guess the time to get worried is when the Wal-Marts start shutting down.

I don't see that happening at least during my lifetime. Walmart was smart and got on the e-commerce bandwagon pretty quickly so their sales are doing very well. In the US, Walmart and Target essentially control the big box retail sector.