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posted by chromas on Tuesday October 16 2018, @07:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-isn't-it-ironic?-don't-you-think? dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Sears, the one-time titan of American retail, filed for bankruptcy ahead of a $134 million debt payment due Monday and announced that it will close 142 stores.

For years, Sears has contended with the threat that it would become the latest big-name retailer to fall to online competition and crushing debt. The icon once known for its pristine catalogs, and more recently known for decrepit showrooms and a controversial chief executive, saw its stock price plunge last week after reports that it had hired an advisory firm to prepare a bankruptcy filing ahead of the Oct. 15 payment.

Early Monday morning, Sears announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- which would allow it to reorganize and possibly reemerge from bankruptcy with some part of the business intact -- and received commitments for $300 million in debtor-in-possession financing to carry through the bankruptcy period while it restructures its debt and reorganizes its business.

[...] Sears will close 142 unprofitable stores near the end of this year, with liquidation sales at those stores expected to begin soon. It was not immediately clear where those stores are located or how many jobs would be affected. Those store closings are in addition to 46 others that were expected by next month.

[...] It has also already sold off many of its brands, including Craftsman tools, and hasn't turned a profit since 2010. Many of its most valuable properties have been sold off, with the other half leased and offering little cost savings from rent restructurings since Sears already pays below market rents.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by black6host on Tuesday October 16 2018, @09:12PM (7 children)

    by black6host (3827) on Tuesday October 16 2018, @09:12PM (#749664) Journal

    There's an interesting article at the Harvard Business review discussing brick and mortar versus online shopping and how some companies might successfully combine both: https://hbr.org/2016/05/the-best-retailers-combine-bricks-and-clicks [hbr.org]

    From that article: (Which I do realize is 2 years old...)

    But it’s not happening as pundits predicted. In the heyday of the dot.com bubble, brick-and-mortar retail was one of those industries the Internet was going to kill – and quickly. The dot.com bust discredited most predictions of that sort. And in the years that followed, conventional retailers’ confidence in the future increased as Census continued to report puny online sales. And then the gale hit.

    It is becoming increasingly clear that retail reinvention isn’t a simple battle to the death between bricks and clicks. It is about devising retail models that work for people who are making increasing use of a growing array of Internet-connected tools to change how they search, shop, and buy. Creative retailers are using the new technologies to innovate just about everything stores do from managing inventory, to marketing, to getting paid.

    I was trying to think of brick and mortar stores that made the transition and I'm having a hard time of that... Funny though how Apple seems to do quite well with its retail stores.

    I really think the internet sneaked up on a lot of businesses, or rather their leadership were clueless to the fact that the frog was slowly being boiled, so to speak. Apple doesn't have that problem. I ask my fellow Soylentils: what businesses made the transition and did well?

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  • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday October 16 2018, @10:25PM (1 child)

    by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Tuesday October 16 2018, @10:25PM (#749682)

    Major retailers such as Walmart and Target are transitioning to being both brick and mortar and online presences, trying to grab back a share of what Amazon took from them. A lot of companies won't survive, as you mentioned the leadership is just too clueless to get online in a functionally significant form. I think that any retailers for whom catalog sales were a big part of their business (ironically Sears was once one of the biggest of them) should be able to (should have already) easily add a significant online presence. Small businesses such as used book stores probably do as much or more business online now as they do in store. I live in a tourist town with significant big events, many of the most longstanding businesses are doing a lot of their retail sales online now, rather than just booming during the events and starving the rest of the year.

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:32AM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:32AM (#749911)

      most longstanding businesses are doing a lot of their retail sales online now

      Would agree with and extend your remarks WRT hobby stores seem to be the worlds warehouse for plastic model kits and various supplies. When I visit the friendly local hobby store they seem to have a permanent stack of outgoing UPS boxes for Amazon... why pay a warehouse operator for space if there's brick and mortar stores willing to stock, and if their point of sale systems is smart enough why not allow locals to pay more to buy immediately at the store rather than thru amazon? Its an interesting business model; the store-warehouse. Decades ago warehouse stores were just cheap and ugly decorated stores, but the idea of a retail browsable warehouse is interesting, and apparently sustainable.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday October 16 2018, @10:31PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday October 16 2018, @10:31PM (#749684)

    Walmart and Target are doing just fine. So is, as mentioned in TFA, hardware chains like Lowe's and the Home Depot.

    What brick-and-mortar stores offer that online doesn't:
    1. Faster response time than online delivery has currently been able manage. If you need it faster than tomorrow, you need to get to someplace that has it to retrieve it. Amazon's efforts towards drone-based delivery is an attempt to fix that, but it's no guarantee.

    2. The skills and expertise of the sales clerks. For instance, when I went to buy paint recently, the person working that desk was able to work with me to identify the variety of paint I really should use for what I was doing, which I wouldn't have thought of on my own or easily figured out from online tools.

    A lot of the folks I just mentioned do online sales as well, and the difference between buying from them and online-only retailers is that the goods in question start from the nearest store, not from the nearest warehouse. This makes a difference, because the nearest store is often closer than the nearest warehouse.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @11:09PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 16 2018, @11:09PM (#749695)

    This happened because Sears gave up on customer service, eliminated bonuses for the sales force and merged with Kmart. It's ridiculous that Sears, a company with so much history involved with mail order couldn't figure out how to put out a halfway decent website and continue focusing on that. They already had most of the logistics figured out from all those decades of mail order sales. Running an online site should have been easier

    Last time I went to sears was a few years ago and it was a search to find somebody to take my money after I decided what I wanted to buy.

    • (Score: 2) by suburbanitemediocrity on Wednesday October 17 2018, @02:08AM

      by suburbanitemediocrity (6844) on Wednesday October 17 2018, @02:08AM (#749772)

      Last time I was in sears, it was to buy a car battery charger and when I finally found someone to ask where they were, he said it was 5:55 and he was going home.

    • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:35AM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 17 2018, @11:35AM (#749913)

      Also the products became generic Chinese import stuff. Why pay more at Sears if Harbor Freight sells literally the same stuff cheaper? Why bother driving all the way to Sears if the Target is closer and sell the same Chinese merchandise?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @02:10AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 17 2018, @02:10AM (#749774)

    Our local Sears is closing in mid-December, this was announced a couple of weeks ago. We generally had good luck there, finding knowledgeable sales people and competitive prices with Home Depot, Lowes and other "big box" stores nearby. Earlier this year I even had a dehumidifier repaired by Sears under warranty, came back with a tag that said the leak had been fixed and refilled with refrigerant. It's a little sad since I've been shopping there since it opened c.1970. Have even earlier memories of their big catalog and Christmas catalog which were so much fun for a kid to browse.

    The writing had been on the wall for years as staff and stock was slowly gutted, so it was not a surprise.

    About a week ago we realized we had about $200 left on a Sears gift card (from an extended warranty payout) and decided the bankruptcy rumors were getting strong enough that we ought to spend it now, rather than risk losing it. Found something that we can probably use, tried to have it shipped to store (normally free and fast). Our store was no longer an option, only store offered was the Sears on the other side of town, so we went for the economy free shipping to our house--item arrived today, a couple of days early.

    To me, this experience says that Sears had competent staff and probably a perfectly good business going--except for the bad behavior of the owner.