Despite Lambert winning the bankruptcy auction I think Sears is toast within 5 years at most, shuttering it in a year or two is far from unlikely. With a POD no earlier than 2000 how do you prevent Sears melting down?
AHC: Save Sears
- Thread starter Johnrankins
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Not at all certain of anything. have read a economics magazine article, and followed a discussion here on the subject & it looks unpredictable. Sears shot itself in the ass in the 1980s, by not modernizing its old paper catalogue to the internet. Even to someone as ignorant about the net and web as I circa 1988 this one looked like a no brainer. Yet Sears management missed it entirely. They had the infrastructure, the experience, the suppliers, for warehouse to customer delivery. Investing in translating the paper catalog to a cyber sales point looked like a no brainer to me & a number of my peers. WTF?
Unfortunatly the year 2000 may well be to late to save Sears this way. They'd missed the boat, so far out of sight they could not even wave at it. It would certainly be a uphill battle building Sears online presence back up to what it had in direct distribution presence back at its peak.
I do remember when Sears had a small store presence. The 1950s seems to have been the peak for that model. Dollar General has a retail store on every corner, perhaps Sears could develop a presence with smaller & more acessable stores. One reason I did not purchase at Sears as often is the cost of the time traveling to their single regional location, and transiting the large site to make a small $100 tool purchase.
Unfortunatly the year 2000 may well be to late to save Sears this way. They'd missed the boat, so far out of sight they could not even wave at it. It would certainly be a uphill battle building Sears online presence back up to what it had in direct distribution presence back at its peak.
I do remember when Sears had a small store presence. The 1950s seems to have been the peak for that model. Dollar General has a retail store on every corner, perhaps Sears could develop a presence with smaller & more acessable stores. One reason I did not purchase at Sears as often is the cost of the time traveling to their single regional location, and transiting the large site to make a small $100 tool purchase.
I agree with a lot of what you said. I would make Sears somewhat smaller and more specialized. It would revolve it around Craftsmen Tools, Kenmore Appliances and Sears Auto Center. These are the core of your business model. Moderate cost , high reliability tools and appliances. There may be a few other things you can add but that is your core.
2000 may not be too late...IF they beat Amazon to the game. Sears started as mail-order, if they start the "Everything under one site" before Amazon does.
Too late for that Amazon.com was founded in 1994 and Ebay a year later so by 2000 they have too big a lead. At the very least it is a major uphill battle.
Not sure, but Ebay sure wasn't . That was an auction anything site from day one as far as I can tell.
It was, yes. That said, I do not consider an auction house to be the equivalent of a store. They didn't start doing the storefront thing until later.
Sears' problems is a reflection of the bigger problem going on with the economy. Wages have gone stagnant or not caught up with inflation, leading to buying power going down and as the new generation came in, not as much confidence in the economy.
As such, to save Sears, you'd need to have them both keep up with the times and keep the economy from going down the tubes. Granted, putting in business leaders that run the place down to the ground then squeeze it dry for big bucks
As such, to save Sears, you'd need to have them both keep up with the times and keep the economy from going down the tubes. Granted, putting in business leaders that run the place down to the ground then squeeze it dry for big bucks
Keep it away from Eddie Lampert. The man has been tanking the company for years.
JC Pennys and Macys aren't doing great, but they are surviving. Sears wasn't dying, it was outright murdered.
JC Pennys and Macys aren't doing great, but they are surviving. Sears wasn't dying, it was outright murdered.
Keep the catalog and put it fully orderable online at the earliest possible moment
Sears is and was hardly considered an upper class store chain, it is middle to upper middle class. I don't think affordability is really the issue. The problem is there is no real reason to shop at Sears. It isn't really the leader in anything. I think with Craftsmen tools , Kenmore Appliances and Sears Auto Center being the core of the business you can use reliability as a draw. These are solid brands that are known for reliability . Build around that and you can be competitive IMO.
Yeah, what kind of genius thinks merging with Kmart was a bright idea? Merging two declining companies together gives you one big declining company. The fact that they attract different type of customers really hurts.
Sears is already gone in Canada. They were catering to an older generation and not seen as a trendy place to go by younger people. They still put catalogues out in Canada and there were Sears outposts in smaller communities here. The ordering was great if you were older or didn't have available internet connections, but they probably could have done better maybe operating as an online store once the early 2000s hit.
Sears Canada did acquire Eaton's around 2000 in attempt to be more on trend. Eatons was a Canadian company, loved going there as a kid. Thing is, Eaton's were already in major trouble (most closed a year earlier), so it was probably dead on arrival.
Personally, I think what really killed that acquisition was this four-minute ad. According to this article, it was an attempt for Sears to be more upmarket. Would have been interesting had the experiment worked and helped things out across the border.
Sears Canada did acquire Eaton's around 2000 in attempt to be more on trend. Eatons was a Canadian company, loved going there as a kid. Thing is, Eaton's were already in major trouble (most closed a year earlier), so it was probably dead on arrival.
Personally, I think what really killed that acquisition was this four-minute ad. According to this article, it was an attempt for Sears to be more upmarket. Would have been interesting had the experiment worked and helped things out across the border.
The best way to prevent Sears from falling apart requires a earlier POD (Prior to 2000).
The most likely ways that would have saved Sears would have been.
1. - Sears does not ever become Complacent and does respond to the ever changing Retail market.
2. - Sears does not go overboard on diversification like they did (They should have just stopped the diversification after they had introduced and rolled out the Discover Credit Card).
3. - I do agree with others on this board that Sears should have made it's entire General Merchandise Catalog available for purchase online to everyone who has Internet access the moment the Internet starts gaining steam and allow Site-to-Store shipping as a option (As a cheaper option) like Walmart does these days.
4. - Sears should have invested in the upkeep of all of it's stores which includes replacing outdated equipment and remodeling to keep the appearance of the stores up to date.
Keeping Lampert from having anything to do with Sears under any circumstance would help massively.
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Shamless plug in of my thread https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/sears-bankruptcy-discussion-thread.457425/
Anyway the main problem for Sears is Eddie Lampert, I am being completely serious keep him away at all cost. if you want to save Sears you must do the following.
#1 Get the Company a grade A CEO or owner who has experience in retail and preferably experience with dealing with mail order companies, a businessman who if even not at all technical savy him or herself, see's the internet as a possible market to expand into and is willing to take risk there.
#2 Sears needs to downsize, one of its problems was too many unprofitable stores that weren't needed, this deadweight needs to be cut.
#3 Sear needs to realize that keeping quality from declining should be #1. Sure Walmart may seem to be were the moneys at but they need to stop trying to emulate them as a sales model, they should go back to their roots as a provider and repairer of just about everything of quality.
#4 Don't drop video game's and quality electronics like Lampert did, no one buys from a store that sells Toshiba laptops in the late 2000's.
#5 Once Sear's online sales take off they should they should invest heavily their ASP in software and advertisement beat Amazon to the punch.
If all these things are done Sears could probably stick around another hundred years or more, and just maybe buy back Sears Tower.
Anyway the main problem for Sears is Eddie Lampert, I am being completely serious keep him away at all cost. if you want to save Sears you must do the following.
#1 Get the Company a grade A CEO or owner who has experience in retail and preferably experience with dealing with mail order companies, a businessman who if even not at all technical savy him or herself, see's the internet as a possible market to expand into and is willing to take risk there.
#2 Sears needs to downsize, one of its problems was too many unprofitable stores that weren't needed, this deadweight needs to be cut.
#3 Sear needs to realize that keeping quality from declining should be #1. Sure Walmart may seem to be were the moneys at but they need to stop trying to emulate them as a sales model, they should go back to their roots as a provider and repairer of just about everything of quality.
#4 Don't drop video game's and quality electronics like Lampert did, no one buys from a store that sells Toshiba laptops in the late 2000's.
#5 Once Sear's online sales take off they should they should invest heavily their ASP in software and advertisement beat Amazon to the punch.
If all these things are done Sears could probably stick around another hundred years or more, and just maybe buy back Sears Tower.
To me Sears lost it's identity to the consumers it served. There are many good ideas in this thread that are right on point, but the main one is (as a customer) why should I shop at Sears?
My suggestion is make it an 'American" company again. All the merchandise (or as much as possible) should be made in the USA and hammer that fact in your advertising. Find smaller US companies to provide your products and preach Quality is #1. People will pay more if they feel they are getting good products made in the USA.
In my opinion that's how you turn it around because now you have a separator from other similar retailers. You've given the customers a reason to shop at Sears.
My suggestion is make it an 'American" company again. All the merchandise (or as much as possible) should be made in the USA and hammer that fact in your advertising. Find smaller US companies to provide your products and preach Quality is #1. People will pay more if they feel they are getting good products made in the USA.
In my opinion that's how you turn it around because now you have a separator from other similar retailers. You've given the customers a reason to shop at Sears.