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Post by Parkman on Dec 29, 2018 10:13:18 GMT -5
Yeah, I see those A&E and Sears vans near the Auto Shop here too. I don't know if Stanley got the mowers or not. Most of the Craftsman stuff at Lowes looks like it's just tool boxes or totes and shop vacs and such. I haven't looked closely, but I hadn't seen any hand or power tools there from Craftsman yet. It looks like financing came through so I guess Sears and Kmart are saved again from bankruptcy... I saw some drills and a few saws but I haven't seen hand tools yet. Ace had some good deals on Craftsman Screwdrivers 6 for $2.99 with your Ace Rewards Card. I'm very confused on whats going on I read that Lampert snuck a bid in but they are probably not going to accept it or something. Apparently January in the first week they'll determine if its ok or if its split up the company, liquidate, and call it a day.
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Post by Cole D on Aug 7, 2019 22:06:47 GMT -5
Well, I just looked in the latest Sears/Kmart closings and our Sears is on the list unfortunately. It's a little ironic, because I was just talking the other day how if our Sears was on a 20 year lease it'd be up this year or next year since it opened in 1999 or 2000. I was hoping it was one of the properties they owned, because I noticed they didn't paint outside of Sears when the rest of the mall was.
But yeah, it's over I guess. I really don't see how the entire chain is going to stay around for that long anyway. I believe they're just riding out their leases now for the most part and they'll keep closing them as they come up for renewal. They've closed some nice ones already both Kmart and Sears so I highly doubt they're going to renew anything at this point...
In a lot of states there are few to no Kmart or Sears left, to where I imagine if it weren't for the closure updates many people probably assumed they've gone out of business entirely.
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Post by Parkman on Aug 8, 2019 6:23:46 GMT -5
We have a Kmart left and thats it. I read in the paper several times ours has always been one of the most profitable stores since it opened and ts still busy. I think it'll make it to the end and it'll be sad for the town as its the only true store there. I went there the other night to pick something up its my first time in there in a few months and they re arranged a little and got rid of a ton of what was the "electronic" section including the two aisles of old school DVD's.
Everything else is gone Sears/Kmart wise you're looking at a 40 minute drive. When they were disappearing I figured market saturation around here cause we did have more than you would expect however when it died at our local mall.. That was kind of the true end of Sears for me. Unfortunately Sears leaving started the end of our mall, JC Penney left this year and two weeks later after promising the mall would not ever be sold by the company that developed it in 1987.. They sold it to a company that has some of the worst real estate management reputations in the country.
Cole, you're right there is no way that they can remain longterm profitable. The logistics are completely out of wack.
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Post by Cole D on Aug 8, 2019 16:33:46 GMT -5
The Kmart here I often heard was one of the most profitable in the state. Still, when it's 25 year lease was up, they shut it down. With the Sears and Kmart gone, the mall will have two large vacancies. (The Sears was added on after the mall was built, but before Kmart and Sears merged.) JCPenney is still open but it looks like they really aren't doing very well. The store here is still stocked but you can tell they just have spread a lot of the displays out to hide the fact that there's less merchandise, plus there's a huge clearance section all the time.
I do wonder what will happen to the mall here with two or possibly three large vacancies. With Sears gone it leaves 3 anchors, but I doubt they will ever be able to find anyone to fill the Sears or Kmart. They were talking like Rural King might move into the old Kmart but it doesn't seem likely. Many of the smaller spaces have become empty as well and moved to other spots. The theater still draws a lot of people, but they don't seem to walk around in the mall.
I first noticed the mall started slowing down around the late 2000s, 2009-2010 era. The places in the food court started closing like Sbarro's and A&W, and Starbucks had moved into their own building. I've heard the food tenants are usually the first to get flighty, plus the small operations popping up to replace them have came and gone a few times.
That was also around the time I noticed Kmart and Sears operating with little staff at checkouts, etc. And especially post 2012 is when there just wasn't as much selection.
I think there's Sears at the Florida Mall about two hours from here, that will probably be the closest one. I see them just riding out their leases from here out, but I wouldn't expect them to be around 5-10 years MAX. I have noticed more of the Craftsman tools being sold at Lowes. Plus Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart and QVC have started selling Kenmore vacuum cleaners on their websites. But that's all they're selling, nothing else from Kenmore, and they're different colors than the ones at Sears. They haven't showed up in stores yet, but I wish they would with Sears closing down.
It's a shame they'll be gone, they were my favorite store as a kid. Still the idea of buying clothes and appliances in the same store is kind of novel these days if you think about it... It's just that they didn't keep up with the times. To survive in this day and age as a brick and mortar store you really have to offer something you can't get elsewhere and be competitive with online prices. I guess that's why certain stores still are holding on pretty well, but it's mostly grocery, discount chains like Marshalls or Ross and book and sporting good stores.
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Post by Parkman on Aug 9, 2019 6:52:39 GMT -5
We're at the point now where its hard to find clothes I mean there is always Walmart and Target but other than that the only choices you have are one local Dept. Store and Macy's.
Same thing happened with our mall Taco Bell and Chick Fil A got there own locations around 2010-2011.. I understand why they can make a ton more money by being open to everyone then just the food court. The local places are holding there own there but the franchise food places minus Auntie Anne's Pretzels flew out years ago.
Good to know it isn't just our local Sears and Kmarts that have barely any checkout staff... I actually went to Kmart twice where they one had one register open and it was the one where the belt was broken so you had to hand move your stuff up to the cashier.
I'd say 5 is the max for them. Whats a shame is that they are trying to test these small appliance/mattress/tool only SEARS which would have been smart to do ten years ago and shed the giant lease burden they have but its too late and SEARS merchandise is junk anymore.. I bought a bunch of Kenmore appliances in 2016... I will NOT own a Kenmore appliance again.
You're definitely right. Sears had too much lack of evolution and too much burden (the leases, pensions, etc.) but then they let there products go to crap which is there fault for cost cutting but also because a lot of companies stopped wanting to work with them because they figured they'd go bankrupt by now and if it wasn't for Eddie Lampert and his reshuffling of the company time and time and pumping more cash in they probably would have gone under six years ago or so or at least restructured then.
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Post by Cole D on Aug 9, 2019 22:44:58 GMT -5
In the later years at Kmart, mostly they'd just have one checkout plus the customer service desk open, somebody at the jewelry counter and one person in the garden dept. I remember back in the 90s-early 2000s when they actually had self checkouts and would have at least two or three lanes open plus sometimes two in the garden dept. I feel old now thinking back to that, those were the days! They probably started going downhill after they bought Sears, but it didn't really become obvious until all of the closures started, and even up until 2013/14 it still seemed pretty healthy at both stores. I remember in 2012 shopping at Sears one summer and it was busy in the electronics dept. Now you go on a Saturday and count maybe 10 people browsing or buying stuff total!
Sears usually just staffs the checkouts near the doors, which is jewelry, tools and men's.
The first Sears here was actually one of those stores that just had appliances, electronics, vacuums and lawn/garden and maybe tools. Those stores did work pretty well. I saw where they were trying that concept in a few places again, but more like a showroom style. My hometown had a few catalog stores over the years, but it closed in the 90s. Then they actually brought back one of those appliance/mattress/tool stores in the late 2000s, it moved locations once but it closed like 5+ years ago.
Unfortunately I think the name is spoiled and the likelihood of that working is over. It's too bad, because I always thought Sears had a better appliance department than Home Depot or Lowes. We found the employees there weren't as knowledgeable as at Sears, where the employees are more focused on that department. Plus Lowes and Home Depot don't have them plugged in like Sears.
You're right a lot of the build quality has gone down. I found the Haier and LG made Kenmore to be on the cheaper side, where the Whirlpool made is a bit better. Which never made sense to me that Whirlpool stopped selling appliances at Sears a year or two ago but they still make some Kenmore.
We still have the clothing stores at the mall like Belk, Bealls, JCPenney. But JCP has gotten to be cheap quality as far as house brands. I used to get their Stafford dress shirts and they fit and breathed well. A few years ago got some more and the details had been skipped and they just feel so hot and stuffy. Though they still fit well. I mostly just shop at Ross or TJMaxx/Marshalls. Sometimes Goodwill, but they price stuff too high if it's certain brands. Name brand shirts with fading/wear can be like $9.99 and I've seen used name brand jeans for $12.99 or $19.99. I could brand new for the same price at Ross. LOL
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Post by Parkman on Aug 11, 2019 9:36:28 GMT -5
The Customer Service counter at my local Kmart consists of someone bent over on the counter staring at their phone. I don't know that I've EVER seen a Kmart with self checkout thats pretty cool! I think they had too many stores in the chain at 2013-2014 but if they would have started shedding the dead weight earlier they could have prolonged their life somewhat longer with the factors that played into Sears Holdings completely.
Very true!
I agree, I feel Kmart people laugh at and Sears at this point other than to the loyal old school shoppers has a "Wow!, that place is still around?" stigma. I like also in addition to what you're saying about the appliance sales people being smarter the layout is better there is actually room to walk in a Sears unlike Home Depot's and Lowes that are so stinkin crowded to fit as much product as possible in there.
I've even used some Frigidaire made Kenmore stuff and that was junk. Probably had to do with credit or something I would think with Whirlpool it was smart to get out of there instead of getting shafted in bankruptcy!
My wife always is commenting on how hot and stuffy JCP is. She normally gets a headache whenever she shops there if shes in there for more than like 20 minutes.. No need to worry about that anymore I don't even know where the closest one is probably at least an hour away.
My wife is becoming a frequent ROSS shopper. I've been purchasing my clothes at Boscov's as of late or Walmart for non work stuff.
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Post by Cole D on Aug 31, 2019 0:50:50 GMT -5
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Post by Parkman on Sept 1, 2019 9:13:11 GMT -5
They just announced they are closing our remaining area Kmart. Apparently it was in the top 100 stores always since it opened and as of last year was the 3rd most profitable of all the remaining Kmarts... THIS shows something!
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Post by Cole D on Sept 1, 2019 11:30:48 GMT -5
Wow. Do you know if it was approaching a lease end? Most of the Sears and Kmarts that have closed here are at the 20-25 year mark. So it seems to me the strategy is to keep them open until lease runs out and then close regardless if it's a top performer or not, they aren't going to renew any leases. With that in mind it shows they have no intention of keeping the company going, or putting anything into it, they're just trying to get out as much money as possible. Our Kmart was one of the most profitable too when it closed.
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Post by Cole D on Sept 8, 2019 8:26:10 GMT -5
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Post by Parkman on Sept 8, 2019 20:39:36 GMT -5
Now that does NOT look good. I'll be watching this story closely. Anyone have any SEARS or Kenmore Ceiling Fans?
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Post by Jordan U on Sept 16, 2019 13:57:32 GMT -5
I have a few Sears fans, all good stuff.. Even though Sears' quality wasn't the same in recent times, they will still be missed..
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Post by Cole D on Sept 16, 2019 20:56:58 GMT -5
I have a few Sears fans too, and I've always liked the Kenmore vacuums and appliances, though yeah, the quality isn't what it used to be. They were my favorite store as a kid.
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Post by Cole D on Sept 28, 2019 14:43:01 GMT -5
I stopped in Sears yesterday. The entire kids departments are cleared out. Toys has been consolidated to a small section and where it used to be (former electronics department) is all cleared out. Still a lot of appliances, but scaled back. Vacuums and small appliances scaled back. Tools getting pretty cleared out as well as lawnmowers and outdoor. The auto center is closed as well. Shoe department is nearly cleaned out mens and womens still pretty full but a lot seems to be coming from elsewhere. Most of the employees seem to have been brought in or temporary, nobody wearing uniforms.
Somebody just posted on another site the strategy now is to close all remaining Kmarts starting in November and finishing up in January as well as some additional Sears. There will be no Christmas shopping advertising this year for Sears or Kmart. Softlines in remaining Sears will be scaled back most likely. They are trying to sell the Kenmore brand to Lowes but it has stalled lately, although there are also talks about selling it to Amazon. Remaining Sears Auto Centers that are standalone will change to Diehard Auto which will be a separate brand.
Also, it's looking like most likely JCPenney will file Chapter 11 early next year...
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