Sears

[danfifepsu]

when will they go?

[Pikapower]

when will they go?

In  2018, my guess.

[shore72]

I can see the speed of the death spiral increasing. I stopped in a Kmart today; they'd recently closed their pharmacy. Signs on the door said to "pardon our dust" as they do some remodeling. It's a cliche to say somebody is rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic, but that is exactly how it looked and felt in that store. Much of the place was in disarray, with empty aisles, large empty spaces, pallets of crated merchandise sitting everywhere. They had a display of vegetable seedlings out front, surprisingly attractive, and it made me think of the suppliers. How can you have the confidence to keep shipping merchandise, be it lettuce plants or chocolate chip cookies or beach blankets, and expect to get paid by this company?

[retailisking]

Vendors are now pulling back:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sears-restructuring-vendors-idUSKBN16T31S

[TheFugitive]

I am now getting a couple of emails a day offering me "surprise points" if I shop
in one of their stores.  Sad and desperate.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Kmart and Sears will be "shipping their pants" for one last time before closing their last stores. No amount of "Blue Light Specials" will ever save Kmart from this death spiral, now that it is clear, that Sears Holdings has both feet in the grave.

[danfifepsu]

Kmart and Sears will be "shipping their pants" for one last time before closing their last stores. No amount of "Blue Light Specials" will ever save Kmart from this death spiral, now that it is clear, that Sears Holdings has both feet in the grave.

how many months now? I used to worry of Kmart closings now its I AM EXPECTING IT and of SEars these malls NEED A BACK UP PLAN!!!!

[Zayre88]

"We're not going out of business, we're just in the process of becoming a member-centric retailer with our Shop Your Way membership program"

It's not an exact quote from Lampert but it's pretty much the usual excuse that was given after an announcement of falling sales.  It will probably be the same when they do go out of business.

[giantsfan2016]

There was a thing on the Facebook Page for the Meriden Record-Journal newspaper about Sears and their future. 2 employees from the Meriden Square store claimed what was being reported by the media about Sears was untrue. It was after a mandatory employee meeting Thursday morning.


The story about "The 3 Bears" is more believable than what those 2 employees said.

[EddieJ1984]

Kmart and Sears will be "shipping their pants" for one last time before closing their last stores. No amount of "Blue Light Specials" will ever save Kmart from this death spiral, now that it is clear, that Sears Holdings has both feet in the grave.

how many months now? I used to worry of Kmart closings now its I AM EXPECTING IT and of SEars these malls NEED A BACK UP PLAN!!!!

They really do, this one mall, Neshaminy Mall, the macys just closed, if sears goes then it's only Boscovs as the department store, they do have an AMC 24 theater and a barnes & noble, but only having 1 big department store will not be good.

[danfifepsu]

"We're not going out of business, we're just in the process of becoming a member-centric retailer with our Shop Your Way membership program"

It's not an exact quote from Lampert but it's pretty much the usual excuse that was given after an announcement of falling sales.  It will probably be the same when they do go out of business.

he is sugarcoating things I feel. What year will they go out?

[JimSawhill]

The local KMart in Temple Terrace, FL has a now hiring sign up. I wish Sears would sell KMart or spin it off...Sears needs to close lots of their stores and keep about 30 of their most profitable stores.

[mixedday]

Kmart and Sears will be "shipping their pants" for one last time before closing their last stores. No amount of "Blue Light Specials" will ever save Kmart from this death spiral, now that it is clear, that Sears Holdings has both feet in the grave.

how many months now? I used to worry of Kmart closings now its I AM EXPECTING IT and of SEars these malls NEED A BACK UP PLAN!!!!

They really do, this one mall, Neshaminy Mall, the macys just closed, if sears goes then it's only Boscovs as the department store, they do have an AMC 24 theater and a barnes & noble, but only having 1 big department store will not be good.

The Neshaminy Mall has a strange layout as well, and is kind of too close to Philadelphia Mills and Oxford Valley Mall, each owned by Simon. And that part of Bucks County has mixed demographics.

https://www.neshaminymall.com/en/directory/map.html

Interestingly, Sears has the best location that is most visible to Route 1 and Rockhill Dr. (the road that faces the front of the mall). It could be said that Boscov's has the least visible site, but it does well. I think it has absorbed some of the macy's customers. Sears - not so much and is quite dead.

So, when Sears closes, it will be interesting what happens. Boscov could move there, but they might be too cheap. Maybe Simon should buy out the mall and find a way to consolidate all three Philadelphia Mills, Neshaminy and Oxford Valley down to two malls. Maybe persuade macy's to build a store at Sears/Neshaminy site - relocate out of Oxford Valley. I think Oxford Valley could be razed and the land sold to Sesame Place, or another entertainment venue, or made into a town center with luxury apartments. Basically, I wonder about the future of Oxford Valley Mall as well. While it is a stronger mall, it's not a power mall either and could struggle going forward.

[store215]

So, when Sears closes, it will be interesting what happens. Boscov could move there, but they might be too cheap. Maybe Simon should buy out the mall and find a way to consolidate all three Philadelphia Mills, Neshaminy and Oxford Valley down to two malls. Maybe persuade macy's to build a store at Sears/Neshaminy site - relocate out of Oxford Valley. I think Oxford Valley could be razed and the land sold to Sesame Place, or another entertainment venue, or made into a town center with luxury apartments. Basically, I wonder about the future of Oxford Valley Mall as well. While it is a stronger mall, it's not a power mall either and could struggle going forward.

No way Oxford Valley is going anywhere. Although not the 'strongest' of malls, it is surrounded by areas with a lot stronger demographics than Neshaminy. I don't think visibility is really an issue at Neshaminy, but there are just too many other big box centers and such all around the mall. The only thing I could think may happen is Walmart may want to join the mall as a true supercenter (the store across the road from the mall is a hot mess) as they did at Philadelphia Mills. Boscov's would honestly make more sense at Oxford Valley, but they just spent a lot of money expanding Neshaminy, so I doubt they will try that again. Boscov's still seems to do fine regardless of the mall attached to them (the majority of their stores are attached to 'weaker' malls). I don't have high hopes for Neshaminy though surviving as an enclosed mall in the long term, especially when Sears closes up.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Sears opened its first international location in Havana, Cuba in 1942. In 1960, Sears said goodbye to its Cuban stores, when their stores were taken over by the Cuban government during the start of the Cuban Revolution.

[zonemad96]

I found this old article from 2013. In Hunt Valley, MD Sears didn't want apartments to be built in Hunt Valley Town Center:
http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/blog/real-estate/2013/07/hunt-valley-towne-centre-wants.html

The Avalon apartments opened in August of this year, so Avalon ended up winning. What's puzzling is the Sears is on the opposite end of the former mall. What beef would Sears have with apartments that aren't anywhere near the Sears? Wegmans which is closer to the apartments didn't object.

The same issue is playing out in Burlington, NJ with Sears blocking Moonbeam from redeveloping the Burlington Center Mall, and Sears sits there all by itself without any other anchors.

It does seem ridiculous that Sears, a dying chain, holds on to properties on decline and then blocks redevelopment around it to proceed. The Hunt Valley Sears is a small tier 3 store, that doesn't sell TVs and has an unpopular Auto Center.

On another note, I just learned the JCPenney actually closed at Owings Mills Mall back in April of this year. The entire mall is closed, except there is an AMC Movie outparcel still open. I just drove by and the mall is still up but is slated for demolition. If it was Sears, they would have strung along, but JCPenney apparently decided to close not willing to be a last lone store for perpetuity, even though JCPenney doesn't have a Towson/Timonium store unlike Macy's. JCPenney only has stores in the northeast side of Baltimore County, and Columbia.

I actually worked on the construction site for these apartments and one day after work I stopped in at that sears and saw they had no electronics section at all, I have been to multiple sears locations but that's the first I have seen to have completely removed it's electronic section, the whole store was particularly bad even for a sears. I also can't understand what sears would have against these apartments consider more than likely they drove up the value of the land in the area and added more potential customers to their store.

[zonemad96]

Maybe I'm naive but I think kmart still has a chance, I have been to a few kmart stores that weren't complete dumps and actually had a decent amount of traffic. Sears on the other hand is dead, completely dead, the last time I saw a decent sears store was probably 10 years ago the whole concept of a "department store" is dying people much rather shop in smaller specialty clothing stores that cater to exactly what they are looking for or go to a cheap big discount department store like Walmart or target then walk around an regular department store. Kill off sears, maybe close a few kmart stores and get enough money to start actually fixing up the few decent kmart's that are left like they did in their Des Plaines store. That would actually require someone to care about the company though.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

I say that Sears Holdings as a whole, is a failure. Kmart lost the battle to Walmart, Target, Meijer, and to a lesser extent, existing regional players like Shopko. Sears going to suffer the same fate as Montgomery Ward. Both Kmart and Sears have become less relevant in recent years than they have been 20 years ago. Sears Holdings is dying. Time to move on.

[TheFugitive]

Sears always has, to one degree or another, lived in the past.

It's one of the things I personally found enticing about them. (Nostalgia buff)
But in today's retail environment it's the kiss of death.

[mixedday]

So, when Sears closes, it will be interesting what happens. Boscov could move there, but they might be too cheap. Maybe Simon should buy out the mall and find a way to consolidate all three Philadelphia Mills, Neshaminy and Oxford Valley down to two malls. Maybe persuade macy's to build a store at Sears/Neshaminy site - relocate out of Oxford Valley. I think Oxford Valley could be razed and the land sold to Sesame Place, or another entertainment venue, or made into a town center with luxury apartments. Basically, I wonder about the future of Oxford Valley Mall as well. While it is a stronger mall, it's not a power mall either and could struggle going forward.

No way Oxford Valley is going anywhere. Although not the 'strongest' of malls, it is surrounded by areas with a lot stronger demographics than Neshaminy. I don't think visibility is really an issue at Neshaminy, but there are just too many other big box centers and such all around the mall. The only thing I could think may happen is Walmart may want to join the mall as a true supercenter (the store across the road from the mall is a hot mess) as they did at Philadelphia Mills. Boscov's would honestly make more sense at Oxford Valley, but they just spent a lot of money expanding Neshaminy, so I doubt they will try that again. Boscov's still seems to do fine regardless of the mall attached to them (the majority of their stores are attached to 'weaker' malls). I don't have high hopes for Neshaminy though surviving as an enclosed mall in the long term, especially when Sears closes up.

Interesting thought about Wal-Mart expanding. Assuming Sears is out the picture, would Boscov perform better in Neshaminy or in Oxford Valley? If it moved back to Oxford Valley and at the Sears spot this time, it would be in a central anchor position at that mall, and as you mentioned has better demographics around it. Plus it would be competing against two dept. stores than three over last time when Sears was in the picture.

It appears when Boscov emerged from bankruptcy, it closed a lot of stores where it was the fourth anchor and chose to keep open anchors that were in less competitive environments, so Neshaminy would still have the edge. There were exceptions, like Deptford Mall, which has all four mid-range dept. stores, and now it has returned to White Marsh Mall, where it competes against macy's, jcpenney and Sears, but both serve good catchment areas, without immediate competition in some direction, so four anchors and those stores around it in those malls, serve somewhat a retail hub.

I wonder how the Barnes & Noble store is doing at Neshaminy as well.

[retailisking]

SHLD is facing a number of adverse events in a couple of months:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4063238-sears-holdings-bankruptcy-filing-expected-july-10-soon

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

Someone made a custom Sears font based on the old Sears "track" logos. The font is called "Dilemma," and it's based on these three logos:








The cost of the font is $5.00, and it's available for purchase here:
http://haroldsfonts.com/portfolio/dilemma/

[retailisking]

Yet another dispute over terms as the struggling retailer tries to keep the shelves stocked
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-sears-sues-craftsman-vendor-ideal-0608-biz-20170606-story.html

[jason83080]

Sears at Midway Mall in Elyria, OH, is *finally* on the chopping block, closing in September, as the entire mall is slated to be put up for sale in July.

Without Sears, the only major anchor left is going to be JCPenney, with Best Buy and Dunham's as 'junior anchors,' I suppose.

[retailisking]

http://www.retaildive.com/news/sears-slashes-400-more-corporate-jobs/444880

[retailisking]

The struggling retailer says its ability to remain a going concern is in doubt; the stock is now trading under a dollar a share
http://www.bnn.ca/sears-canada-puts-itself-up-for-sale-amid-revenue-swoon-1.777606

[Zayre88]

The struggling retailer says its ability to remain a going concern is in doubt; the stock is now trading under a dollar a share
http://www.bnn.ca/sears-canada-puts-itself-up-for-sale-amid-revenue-swoon-1.777606

Sears Canada is done... they keep trying to reinvent themselves but it's simply not working, no new logo, new layouts or food will save Sears Canada.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

The struggling retailer says its ability to remain a going concern is in doubt; the stock is now trading under a dollar a share
http://www.bnn.ca/sears-canada-puts-itself-up-for-sale-amid-revenue-swoon-1.777606

Sears Canada is done... they keep trying to reinvent themselves but it's simply not working, no new logo, new layouts or food will save Sears Canada.

At this rate, Sears Mexico will remain when Sears U.S. and Sears Canada go under.

[retailisking]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sears-amazon-20170720-story.html

[TheFugitive]

They've sunk so low that they have 81-year old guys working Loss Prevention?

http://www.wpxi.com/news/trending-now/police-shoplifters-stealing-televisions-shove-81yearold-man-killing-him/601169917