The Dark Truth Behind The FALL of Sears (Sears History)

[@julihath8046]

If Sears had focused on the Internet, they could have been serious competition for Amazon. Quite the missed opportunity.

[@financialconnectioninc]

You missed their biggest mistake. Sears closed its catalog business down just a few years before the explosion of the internet in the mid to late 90s. Had they held on and converted the catalog to online commerce, Amazon would still be selling books.

[@jrnfw4060]

Wouldn't have done any good in our case. Hubby and I refuse to shop online for a number of reasons.

[@PacificNorthwestExploratio-k9j]

Why have they opened 3 Sears Home and Life Stores in 2019 only to close in 2022-23? The websites, brand names of Sears and Kmart as well as the intellectual property rights could be sold at any time. Which is what happened to Ames Department Stores, Orchard / Outdoor Supply Hardware and so forth

[@DavidSquires-iy4uv]

I,remember when Montgomery Wards, has Closed Stores Permanently, and went Out of Business. Now, Sears is Gone, Next is J.C.PENNEY. l,still remember when a lot of Major Retailers has Closed Stores Permanently and Filed for Bankruptcy. Those, were the Good Retailers Back Then and I miss the Old Retailers. 22:37

[@jrnfw4060]

Those good retailers ceased being good retailers. That's why they went under.

[@PacificNorthwestExploratio-k9j]

And Ames Department Stores

[@3Storms]

They shouldn't have merged with KMart because that's what dragged them down. When KMart ran into trouble after closing profitable stores for their "Super KMart" disasters, Kmart's losses were also Sears's losses.

[@ericknoblauch9195]

In the 1990's Kmart was having a price war with Walmart that went on to 2001. By 2002 Kmart had lost the price war, and their mismanagement led them into bankruptcy court. When Kmart emerged from bankruptcy they had Eddie Lambert as a investor, and the largest shareholder with a 54 percent ownership in Kmart. Kmart also had in the 1980's and 1990's investments in other retailers that were failures. Sears on the other hand was a cash rich Corporation, and was noted in many business publications as one of the most cash rich corporations in The United States of America. Sears also had it's credit side which provided 60 percent of the revenue for Sears. In 2003 Sears sold the Credit business to Citibank. After the sale, Sears wanted to expand it's Sears Grand concept which was doing very well. Sears took the cash from the sale of it's credit business and went to Kmart to buy closed Kmart store properties to expand off the mall it's Sears Grand stores. Kmart then took that cash and used it to buy Sears. The merger was approved by the Stockholders of Kmart and Sears in two proxy votes for each retailer. On Kmart's side Eddie Lambert voted his 54 percent share. The shareholders of Sears and Kmart overwhelmingly approved the merger. This is how Lambert worked his way into Sears. After that he came up with a plan to raid the assets, and real estate. The original plan was to convert the Kmarts into Sears Grand stores. It never happened. Both Sears and Kmart continued to operate as two brands under the Sears Holdings name. This is where they made their mistake. Both Sears and Kmart continued to have higher operating costs due to running two brands. Sears and Kmart should have been consolidated into one retailer. Sears was also facing fierce competition from The Home Depot, Lowes, and Best Buy. These retailers were growing market share, and were opening more stores. Sears once was the largest appliance retailer in America. They lost that title due to the competition. Hardware and tool customers were going to The Home Depot, and Lowes. Lowes and The Home Depot were also growing their appliance business as well.

[@jrnfw4060]

When we first moved to our new residence in the inland northwest, we drove by the refuse disposal area alongside our road, and noticed that someone had spray-painted the name, "K-MART" on the front of the dumpster in bright orange letters. It has since been painted over, but the sentiment was obvious.

[@chelloboy32]

I feel like Im in the middle of an earthquake with this constant "resonating" and "shaping" 😂😂😂😂

[@Immudzen]

How about that Sears had internal departments compete with each other. You would find some departments not even selling Sears products because they got a better deal on a competitor's product to a different department. They destroyed themselves from within.

[@J-ellO]

Sad to think with these stores a way of life is also closing down.

[@ViroVV]

Sears was salvageable. Instead of trying to save the anchor that Kmart had became, they should have closed the Kmart stores (or rebranded the profitable locations), while retaining the name as a "store brand" for sears stores for its various departments. That shift would have kept them in a better position as digital ordering would come to the forefront.. But yanno, hindsight is 20/20 Then they could have easily stayed ahead of the game by innovating in digital sales with "pickup at store" options for customers who would want to save on shipping items. Which ultimately Walmart was slow to innovate with and only after Amazon Prime had long since taken over. Which the oddest aspect of this is that a company with mail order divisions was not prepared for mail order shift in the industry I just cant believe I watched this for 20+ minutes to avoid mowing the lawn for another half hour.

[@ericknoblauch9195]

I worked for Sears from 1998 to 2006. Sears did have a good website with a lot of merchandise to choose from. Most of what they had jammed into their stores was also on their website. They did have buy online and pick up at a Sears store of your choice, and you could choose buy online for delivery, or ship to your home. After Kmart came along the product offering diminished substantially, and there was too much duplication of product being offered at Kmart and Sears. Sears also owned Orchard Supply Hardware. I had all three retailers near my Home within a three mile radius. I could go into all three stores, and see the same product being offered. Now when I go online, I am shocked that Sears does not offer much anymore. The website is filled with product being offered through leased space online by a marketplace seller similar to Amazon.

[@thomashouse6090]

They used to stand behind their products. Lifetime replacement meant just that

[@ziffification]

2:44 QE2

[@J-ellO]

PLEASE

[@ziffification]

@@J-ellO Queen Elizabeth at a SEARS in Canada at 2:44

[@J-ellO]

@@ziffification thank you so much! ❤️

[@michaelbaucom4019]

JC Penney's will be next

[@gregwasserman2635]

I think Macy's beat them to it. Maybe one or both are next on "Fast" Eddie list for takeover.

[@ericknoblauch9195]

JC Penney still has a good selection online of draperies for your windows. Every time I buy window coverings at JC Penney and put them up people ask if I had custom draperies installed. Macy's on the other hand has a very poor selection of draperies. Macy's also does not always honor it's return policy. Do not buy athletic shoes at Macy's. They use Finish Line to supply their athletic shoes. If they are defective and there is a problem during the return period they do not take them back. When you wear them and something breaks during the return period they do not return them. They tell you they were worn. It happened to me, and I have not been back to any of their stores since.

[@redneckbr8693]

Yeah I'm the first comment😅😅😅😅