Sears Holdings files for Ch 11 closing 142 more stores before years end

[UNCjigga]

I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, the only Sears B&Ms left are Sears Auto. I always liked Sears Auto for routine inspections and tire rotations/alignments/replacements.

 

[deathBOB]

I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, the only Sears B&Ms left are Sears Auto. I always liked Sears Auto for routine inspections and tire rotations/alignments/replacements.

Sears auto is legit. Definitely less sketchy than other similar auto places (looking at you Pep Boys and Firestone).

 

[Puffnstuff]

I wouldn't be surprised if in a few years, the only Sears B&Ms left are Sears Auto. I always liked Sears Auto for routine inspections and tire rotations/alignments/replacements.

Sears auto is legit. Definitely less sketchy than other similar auto places (looking at you Pep Boys and Firestone).

I remember when Sears, Wards and JC Penney all had auto service but only Sears has managed to survive this long. The Wards auto center in Pensacola was very good and I was sad to see it go under. Now only the Sears auto center at the closed University Mall complex remains. Here in Jax their auto center at the Orange Park Mall is okay but its not my first choice when I need to get things done.

 

[Zorba]

This is just another example of the long, slow inexorable grind of technology killing jobs. Amazon is more efficient, centralized, less labor intensive than retail B&M stores. The weaker ones like Sears die out first.

In the future, we are going to have to adjust to lower levels of employment.

While all of that is true, there is more to it also.

Amazon has been able to operate for over 20 years without turning a real profit, due to investors holding them to a different standard than normal businesses (same with Uber vs taxis). This is clearly anti-competitive, but our laws don't cover it because prior to the .com bubble a company couldn't do it long term.

Amazon also benefits from massive amounts of corporate welfare no retail can compete with. The biggest being that for most of their life they haven't collected sales tax, and still don't in many cases. They have also gotten ridiculous packages for their warehouses and now their second corporate office.

When you add up the savings from not profiting, not collecting sales tax, and other out of line corporate welfare, they have a major artificial advantage against any business that doesn't have those benefits. To a lesser extent, they also benefit by being able to get their competitors to pay for their showroom overhead.

That being said Sears would be dying either way. Although the Sears Kmart merger presents an opportunity to discuss how chapter 11 can be used to distort the market and allow a terrible company to buy a company that would otherwise be much more valuable.

 

[zinfamous]

This country was bought and paid for long before Trump. Get your head out of your ass. Both sides are fucking us.

So the good Obama economy that keeps growing while Trump tweets in the WH is Trump's responsibility, but the bad economy that happened with Obama remains Obama's responsibility?

Got it.

 

[K1052]

While all of that is true, there is more to it also.

Amazon has been able to operate for over 20 years without turning a real profit, due to investors holding them to a different standard than normal businesses (same with Uber vs taxis). This is clearly anti-competitive, but our laws don't cover it because prior to the .com bubble a company couldn't do it long term.

Amazon also benefits from massive amounts of corporate welfare no retail can compete with. The biggest being that for most of their life they haven't collected sales tax, and still don't in many cases. They have also gotten ridiculous packages for their warehouses and now their second corporate office.

When you add up the savings from not profiting, not collecting sales tax, and other out of line corporate welfare, they have a major artificial advantage against any business that doesn't have those benefits. To a lesser extent, they also benefit by being able to get their competitors to pay for their showroom overhead.

That being said Sears would be dying either way. Although the Sears Kmart merger presents an opportunity to discuss how chapter 11 can be used to distort the market and allow a terrible company to buy a company that would otherwise be much more valuable.

Department stores in particular started getting their lunches eaten by other, more modern, B&M competitors too like Target/Walmart/Sam's/Costco who had efficient operations and lower costs.

 

[Zorba]

Department stores in particular started getting their lunches eaten by other, more modern, B&M competitors too like Target/Walmart/Sam's/Costco who had efficient operations and lower costs.

Definitely, like I said, they were dead either way. I know they got hurt a lot when HD and Lowe's started selling appliances and decent home brand tools, too.

 

[theeedude]

Technology took out a few more opportunities for Trump Trash to find work. Drip drip.

 

[jmagg]

Technology took out a few more opportunities for Trump Trash to find work. Drip drip.

There can be no dumber post today.

 

[glenn1]

Department stores in particular started getting their lunches eaten by other, more modern, B&M competitors too like Target/Walmart/Sam's/Costco who had efficient operations and lower costs.

While nostalgia hates to see them go, as you stated other competitors are taking their place in the great circle of life. Sears displaces Woolworth, gets replaced by WalMart in turn who gets replaced by Amazon or someone else. Plus the U.S. had way too much retail square footage compared to the rest of the world so this is a reversion back to the mean in any event. Doesn't mean we should celebrate it, but likewise we can't and shouldn't pine for the former days of dinosaur department stores anymore than we should regret moving from the Pony Express to more efficient means of communications. We still need to provide relevant education to folks to pursue modern opportunities and not just presume a job in retail is the ultimate fallback for anyone (how many decades have we been saying "you'll end up working at McDonalds" for example?). It isn't gloating over the store's death or the troubles of those who worked there, it's simply recognizing a changing world. One thing is for sure though, we need some approach other than GOP "tax cuts fix everything" or Democrat's "let's give them unemployment for years until Sears brings them back" thinking.

 

[theeedude]

There can be no dumber post today.

Feeling bitter that some liberal hipsters in Seattle ate your lunch? Get used to it.

 

[Bitek]

The only real Sears left around here has looked like it was going out of business for at least three years, but it still hasn't made the cut. It really makes me wonder what the closing stores look like.


This. I used to buy exclusively Craftsman tools. I had no problem paying more for the quality and for being built in the US. But they tools are just junk now. The last two wrenches I bought, one was so out of spec it rounded off the nut. The other one hadn't been deburred and actually cut my hand open the first time I used it (It cost like $30 too, got a Kobalt for $10, much higher quality). The worst thing is they didn't even lower the price when they sold out to China.

Which was just mind-blowingly stupid strategy to kill a brand.

Why go all the way to the Sears in the mall to buy expensive now-shitty tools when I can buy cheap Chinese tools from the far more convenient big box, (or harbor freight if you have one close and really cheap and crappy is good enough)?

Dumb AF.

 

[Bitek]

😡 IDIOT.... WTF DOES TRUMP HAVE DO WITH SEARS/KMART CLOSING? DID YOU BITCH ABOUT OBAMA WHEN SEARS/KMART CLOSED 109 STORES IN 2014?

You know, Trump claimed credit for a GLOBAL improvement in airline safety last year.

So yeah. Who's the true idiot?

Or does Trump just get credit for only good stuff?

 

[Puffnstuff]

You know, Trump claimed credit for a GLOBAL improvement in airline safety last year.

So yeah. Who's the true idiot?

Or does Trump just get credit for only good stuff?

I was just going to ignore the insecure cap lock kid.😀

 

[feralkid]

😡 IDIOT.... WTF DOES TRUMP HAVE DO WITH SEARS/KMART CLOSING? DID YOU BITCH ABOUT OBAMA WHEN SEARS/KMART CLOSED 109 STORES IN 2014?

DAMN RIGHT!

WHAT THE FUCK IS IT ABOUT ALL CAPS THAT THESE PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND?

 

[Zaap]

I'm actually surprised there's 103 sears and Kmart stores in existence to close. Let alone more beyond that presumably staying open.

Neither place has been relevant in years. Last time I had the misfortune of setting foot in a Kmart, it struck me as just aisles full of pure garbage... a Walmart wanna-be 20 years ago, let alone today. I felt bad for anyone whose only choice of shopping was that dump.

And Sears? They just have no presence in modern American culture. I suspect better management could have changed that, but even its a recognized brand, I can't imagine who it connects with. Maybe my grandparents generation.

It's the nature or business. Stay relevant and in the consciousness of your customers or die.

I'd not be surprised if both companies already were dead.

 

[Bitek]

I was just going to ignore the insecure cap lock kid.😀

I think it's hilarious having an all caps tirade defending a guy that's made a career out of exaggerating and taking credit for things he had nothing to do with.

 

[Puffnstuff]

I think it's hilarious having an all caps tirade defending a guy that's made a career out of exaggerating and taking credit for things he had nothing to do with.

Me too.

 

[Zaap]

There can be no dumber post today.

He's a mouth breathing moron who barely has a functioning braincell. Everything in is little world has trump shitstains smeared all over it.

It's pretty sad when a fool's brain is so feeble that it's actually filled with the feces of his object of political derangement. But then again, that's not atypical around here.

 

[brycejones]

He's a mouth breathing moron who barely has a functioning braincell. Everything in is little world has trump shitstains smeared all over it.

It's pretty sad when a fool's brain is so feeble that it's actually filled with the feces of his object of political derangement. But then again, that's not atypical around here.

Oh the ironing

 

[K1052]

We still need to provide relevant education to folks to pursue modern opportunities and not just presume a job in retail is the ultimate fallback for anyone (how many decades have we been saying "you'll end up working at McDonalds" for example?). It isn't gloating over the store's death or the troubles of those who worked there, it's simply recognizing a changing world. One thing is for sure though, we need some approach other than GOP "tax cuts fix everything" or Democrat's "let's give them unemployment for years until Sears brings them back" thinking.

At this point I think we need both training and relocation. Give people new skills and pay them to move where there is employment and services. One of the most unfortunate things I think Trump did was lie to a ton of people that their fading hometowns would suddenly be reinvigorated by his mystical business powers. There is no such fix for many (or even most) of these places unless they're in the near orbit of a larger city. Having had a front row seat to the current trend I see only pain and heartache ahead for many many people.

 

[1prophet]

At this point I think we need both training and relocation. Give people new skills and pay them to move where there is employment and services. One of the most unfortunate things I think Trump did was lie to a ton of people that their fading hometowns would suddenly be reinvigorated by his mystical business powers. There is no such fix for many (or even most) of these places unless they're in the near orbit of a larger city. Having had a front row seat to the current trend I see only pain and heartache ahead for many many people.

All the training, education, relocation isn't going to fix a moral/ethical problem known as vulture capitalism's race to the bottom

 

[Puffnstuff]

Oh the ironing

Is that with or without starch?😛

 

[IronWing]

Thanks Trump.


Actually, when we replaced our washing machine we crossed Sears off the list precisely because we thought the company wouldn’t last through the warranty period.

 

[fskimospy]

While all of that is true, there is more to it also.

Amazon has been able to operate for over 20 years without turning a real profit, due to investors holding them to a different standard than normal businesses (same with Uber vs taxis). This is clearly anti-competitive, but our laws don't cover it because prior to the .com bubble a company couldn't do it long term.

Amazon also benefits from massive amounts of corporate welfare no retail can compete with. The biggest being that for most of their life they haven't collected sales tax, and still don't in many cases. They have also gotten ridiculous packages for their warehouses and now their second corporate office.

When you add up the savings from not profiting, not collecting sales tax, and other out of line corporate welfare, they have a major artificial advantage against any business that doesn't have those benefits. To a lesser extent, they also benefit by being able to get their competitors to pay for their showroom overhead.

That being said Sears would be dying either way. Although the Sears Kmart merger presents an opportunity to discuss how chapter 11 can be used to distort the market and allow a terrible company to buy a company that would otherwise be much more valuable.

The idea that amazon does not turn a profit is pretty wrong. While they don’t return a lot of money to their shareholders their profits from operations are pretty good. The difference is that they plow those profits back into their business in investment in a very deliberate effort to grow the company.

I agree that their ability to avoid sales tax has been a big benefit to them though.