Sears is now a penny stock

[kcowan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbieB Yup, the Sears where I grew up was a first class store. ... They were really good -

and they had a storefront in every town where you could take delivery of your items ordered from the catalog. The fulfilment volumes for those stores were off the charts.

What a lost opportunity!

(In 1981, I needed a new fridge for our new house. They had new one for half price at the Sears Clearance Center. Only problem was the Harvest Gold color. I had it painted white before taking delivery for $100. Still working great when we sold the house 16 years later.)

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcowan (In 1981, I needed a new fridge for our new house. They had new one for half price at the Sears Clearance Center. Only problem was the Harvest Gold color. I had it painted white before taking delivery for $100. Still working great when we sold the house 16 years later.)

12 years ago I bought a GE fridge from a Sears Clearance Center, it still runs great and I saved about 30% on the regular street price. It has sure held up better than the stock price of either GE or Sears.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kcowan and they had a storefront in every town where you could take delivery of your items ordered from the catalog. The fulfilment volumes for those stores were off the charts. What a lost opportunity!

Sears did try some things to remain relevant. They bought Lands' End, which I thought might be a good move. DW liked it--she could try clothes on in our local Sears, buy exactly the color/version she wanted online at Lands' End, and if it wasn't perfect, she could return the items at Sears. It sounds like a losing proposition for Sears brick-and-mortar stores, but if they still get the sale through Lands' End it would be a win.

[GalaxyBoy]

I walked through our local Sears a while back and it looked like they had already had a liquidation sale. The tool section was especially empty.

But I recall their credit card service was a real cluster. I moved from what I later learned was one region to another, so when I paid the bill from my new address it didn’t get credited to my old address. I had to bring both bills to the store and show them that I had a credit on one bill that equaled the amount due on the other. They straightened it out after a long and frustrating conversation. I then asked the man if I could borrow his scissors and cut up the card in front of him! This was back when they would only take the store card or Discover.

[zippy2020]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fedup I just bought a new fridge from Sears. The last one last 15 years.

Sears doesn't make appliances. It rebadges other mfgs' models, sometimes adding 'bells and whistles' but they are essentially the same.

Here's an article plus link to how you can check who mfg your "Sears" appliance:
https://www.hunker.com/13408815/how-...nce-from-sears

[Luvdogs]

Per CNBC, BK soon. Obviously no surprise.

[CoolRich59]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobandsherry Remember when Sears planned to be a major financial services firm owned Allstate and then in the 80's expanded by acquiring Dean Witter, Coldwell Banker and starting up the new Discover card? They also did joint venture and founded Prodigy (how many recall that?). Along the way accumulated huge real estate holdings, including Sears Tower in Chicago.

Yep. I remember all those, including Prodigy. Sears was the Amazon and Walmart of its time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobandsherry So how do you go from that to the embarrassment they are today? Actually, they were dead back in the 90's, so their flame burned out in just over a few decades. Soon after KMart acquired them in 2004 (that was truly the embarrassment). Hard to believe that KMart after being BK could acquire a company like Sears that used to be the powerhouse of the of the 80's. RIP

I live not too far from Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates, IL. In appx 2001 I was in the market for a new j@b and they had an atty position open on their staff. I knew a couple of folks who worked for Sears and leveraged my network to try and get that position, but was turned down.

Another friend told me "You're lucky. That company is dead. They just don't know it yet." Very prescient words.

[Lakewood90712]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GalaxyBoy I walked through our local Sears a while back and it looked like they had already had a liquidation sale. The tool section was especially empty. .

Sears Holdings has recently been suing their craftsman tool supplier for limiting the stock fronted on credit. Apparently the supplier (Apex ? ) is worried about getting screwed if Sears goes into BK. How shocking .

[imoldernu]

Sears to file for bankruptcy today... Oct 10.

[brett]

I am surprised that Sears lasted this long.

[Freedom56]

This is going to be a multi-year shakeout of the retail sector. Sears is making the headlines now but JC Penny and others will follow soon. Bankruptcy protection is going to solve their long term problems. Sears has become irrelevant for years.

Don't blame Amazon or Ebay. It's not just the large department stores that are going to get hit, but optical retailers, jewelry store chains, mattress centers, furniture stores and many others. There are far too many stores and malls in this country. People have changed their buying habits. The younger generation are not buying material items like their previous generations. A large number aren't even buying cars and are using ride share and public transportation. It's not due to a lack of money either, many are holding jobs that pay in excess of $200K per year and they are in their 20's.

Thinking about all the excesses we have accumulated over the years, like sterling silverware and fine china dinner sets that we have used maybe a dozen times in the last 25 years, the younger generation have a point. The good news is that this will keep inflation in check for years to come. Healthcare is the only sector with skyrocketing costs not due to supply chain inflation but pure greed and that won't last forever.

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoolRich59 Yep. I remember all those, including Prodigy. Sears was the Amazon and Walmart of its time. I live not too far from Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates, IL. In appx 2001 I was in the market for a new j@b and they had an atty position open on their staff. I knew a couple of folks who worked for Sears and leveraged my network to try and get that position, but was turned down. Another friend told me "You're lucky. That company is dead. They just don't know it yet." Very prescient words.

However.... it is 17 years later and many more 'healthy' companies have actually died along the way and Sears is still going...


But, everybody has now arrived as the Dr. has said it will be anytime now... it will pass in its sleep...

[bobandsherry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud However.... it is 17 years later and many more 'healthy' companies have actually died along the way and Sears is still going... But, everybody has now arrived as the Dr. has said it will be anytime now... it will pass in its sleep...

Actually, the original Sears died in 2004 when KMart acquired them. So it was only 3 years later.

What is dying now is the POS KMart that went BK in 2002 and then came out of BK by ESL Investments and Lampert was named Chairman - yep, the same one sucking all the $$$ out of Sears today. KMart just grabbed the Sears name, and well, we see where that is today.

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobandsherry Actually, the original Sears died in 2004 when KMart acquired them. So it was only 3 years later. What is dying now is the POS KMart that went BK in 2002 and then came out of BK by ESL Investments and Lampert was named Chairman - yep, the same one sucking all the $$$ out of Sears today. KMart just grabbed the Sears name, and well, we see where that is today.

Interesting... I thought it was the other way....



Did they get rid of all top mgmt from Sears? What about the legal dept?



I went through a number of mergers and was still working until 2008 when the mgr that knew nothing was put in charge and got rid of all the 'old' people who knew everything... it was a disaster and they moved her on in a year or so but we were already gone...

[bobandsherry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud Interesting... I thought it was the other way.... Did they get rid of all top mgmt from Sears? What about the legal dept? I went through a number of mergers and was still working until 2008 when the mgr that knew nothing was put in charge and got rid of all the 'old' people who knew everything... it was a disaster and they moved her on in a year or so but we were already gone...

Nah, I remember that announcement, had me floored and I knew then that Sears was doomed. The Chairman and CEO of Sears stuck around briefly, but was gone by 2006.

News story from 2004: Kmart to acquire Sears in $11 billion deal - Business - Stocks & economy | NBC News

[jazz4cash]

Kmart dying along with Sears is big. They also have storied history but nowhere as prolific as Sears. How this happened is a curiosity to me as KM had the WM sales model first. I can’t tell the difference and WM seems pretty healthy even with the threat from AMZN.

[Lakewood90712]

Looking at the chart for today , open very low, relative high volume day , with two spikes of high volume at about 50% above the low price. Short sellers buying to cover ?

[bobandsherry]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash Kmart dying along with Sears is big. They also have storied history but nowhere as prolific as Sears. How this happened is a curiosity to me as KM had the WM sales model first. I can’t tell the difference and WM seems pretty healthy even with the threat from AMZN.

With Lampert at KM and then overseeing the newly formed Sears Holdings, there was more to be made by selling off assets and closing locations than there was in trying to make Sears Holdings successful. Now picked clean of quality real estate, next step is to go BK, stick it to vendors and then re-organize again - then rinse and repeat. What a scam....

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash I can’t tell the difference and WM seems pretty healthy even with the threat from AMZN.

Oh I can. Kmart is a depressing place (around where I live) to walk into.

Walmart and Target are bright and well organized. At K, you may encounter some old school pegboard shelving that is about 50 years old, half broken down, with merchandise that is all mixed up and in terrible shape.

Both WM and Target clearly make an effort to watch their shelves.

And their floors. Every morning you see the "zamboni-like" cleaners in those stores. Not so much at K. The lighting is different. The signage is different.

Etc. and on and on. WM and Target are not perfect, but clearly they do something that just feels better to most customers.

Sears used to be like this! And then, well, it went to heck. I know one thing that was really irritating was they wouldn't take Visa (back in the day). You had to get a store card, and then later Discover. This kind of decision from the highest levels of the company had repercussions. I'm sure there were many more, like the story about above sales getting in trouble for selling the value leader object. After a while, these things add up. Customers may not even intentionally switch. They may just gravitate to the slightly better experience without realizing it.

... Oh, and for guys, I think the rise of Home Depot, Lowes, Menards was a huge blow.

[aja8888]

Sears had great tool departments and I still have a 4 HP air compressor I bought from them in 1976. Still runs fine.

They used to have full service auto repair facilities and a great catalog sales department.

They were typically a corner store on many malls.

Their appliances were always the ones to buy and rely on.

What happened? (and it didn't happen overnight!)

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazz4cash How this happened is a curiosity to me as KM had the WM sales model first. I can’t tell the difference and WM seems pretty healthy even with the threat from AMZN.

I've always thought there's a big difference between shopping at K-Mart vs Wal-mart. Wal-mart ain't Nordstrom's, but the stores are well lit, fairly clean, and the merchandise is generally neatly arranged. K-marts have low ceilings, are dimly lit, have floor tiles that are likely yellowed, the corners are dirty, and the merchandise is more frequently off the rack and on the floor. The impression--dingy, yellowed, not-too-clean. Neither store had quick checkout or a returns desk that was well run, but things were worse at K-Mart.

Walmart keeps all their prices low, K-Mart's prices were good on sale items, the rest were often higher than Walmart.

According to this book, K-Mart's management just got complacent. They got out-hustled and out innovated by WalMart. From the looks of the stores, I think Walmart did a better job of training their folks, investing in their stores, and enforcing standards. K-Mart became somebody's cash cow.