Well, Sears has survived, so far, although its prospects are indeed dim.
Maybe 'thrive' in the title, not survive?
Maybe 'thrive' in the title, not survive?
WI: Sears Survives
- Thread starter DominusNovus
- Start date
GeographyDude
Gone Fishin'
RE: Driving out competitors and then jacking up prices a la Standard Oil.
You really need a judge with some gumption and spunk who’s willing to say something of the sort — Yes, loss leaders are a traditional part of retail, but with your track record, if the prosecutor brings evidence of any products being sold below cost, I will show you a loss leader. Do I make myself clear?
Look at the differences over the way Sears and Amazon marketed.
Sears (and Montgomery Ward) published semi-annual large catalogs plus a Christmas catalog, toy catalog, etc. They assured sufficient stock to keep up with demand throughout a calendar year.
Amazon links to multiple suppliers. Note that some are labeled "quantity remaining: 10." When one lot is sold out of stock, another comes by and replaces it, often with a different price. Or dozens of items will appear in an item search, often with very different prices.
It is very different from the Sears approach of three "good-better-best" in the catalog. Many towels and fabrics were scripted with a tag that said "Sears Best."
I think an issue is that Sears could not bring itself to the dynamic shopping system that took away some valued quality control. Amazon on line gives the chance to "compare shop" like going from Sears to Ward's to K-Mart to Woolco, etc., the only way to do so through the eighties. Another issue to remember is that most consumer Internet access was through dial-up connections until well after 2000. It was slow to present pictures or the detailed specifications we now get with the click of a mouse. In the early days of Amazon, they catered to a half of a two-tiered clientele: those with good network hook-ups.
Sears (and Montgomery Ward) published semi-annual large catalogs plus a Christmas catalog, toy catalog, etc. They assured sufficient stock to keep up with demand throughout a calendar year.
Amazon links to multiple suppliers. Note that some are labeled "quantity remaining: 10." When one lot is sold out of stock, another comes by and replaces it, often with a different price. Or dozens of items will appear in an item search, often with very different prices.
It is very different from the Sears approach of three "good-better-best" in the catalog. Many towels and fabrics were scripted with a tag that said "Sears Best."
I think an issue is that Sears could not bring itself to the dynamic shopping system that took away some valued quality control. Amazon on line gives the chance to "compare shop" like going from Sears to Ward's to K-Mart to Woolco, etc., the only way to do so through the eighties. Another issue to remember is that most consumer Internet access was through dial-up connections until well after 2000. It was slow to present pictures or the detailed specifications we now get with the click of a mouse. In the early days of Amazon, they catered to a half of a two-tiered clientele: those with good network hook-ups.
GeographyDude
Gone Fishin'
Well, Ayn did kind of have her self-help center, besides that I don’t think she was that much of a practicing businesswoman.
8 out of 10 new businesses fail within the first couple of years.
Similar to biology and Earth history in which it’s only a slight exaggeration to say, all species are extinct. Now, I should say with my advocacy of a mixed economy and Keynesians, I just have a very small — and very brief! — foray in a photography business. And a couple of sidelines of tutoring math.
But like most of us, I have worked at a variety of jobs and in a variety of circumstances, and I think that counts, too.
Thats not particularly relevant to the discussion at hand, but I doubt that Sears would really be saved by such a situation, if they were seriously active in the online retail world.
Best bet would be focusing on the strength, a robust mature & well functioning mail order system. The major change would be reproducing the catalog on the web. That could be enhanced by ordering options, such as the ability to print and mail in your order with the traditional check payment, credit card payment, or a charge account. This caters to customers who did not use credit cards in those days. The paper catalogs could be continued for customers who would not touch a computer until hell froze over. A not trivial number in those days. A pick up at the store option would be important for customers like me who are usually on the road during the delivery hours favored by USPS, Fed Ex, UPS ect.
I agree. I think using the stores as a fulfillment center would also make it much easier for Sears to shift gears back to mail order; as they still would have a use for them, and could devote much of the floor space that doesn't need to be used for actual racks for behind the scenes storage and displays. For example, rather than, say, 1000 square feet of sweaters, you'd have maybe 200 square feet of mannequins with the sweaters, and 800 square feet freed up for storage in the (now much larger) back room. Obviously, those are numbers pulled out of thin air.
Hmmm, I wonder if I could do a counter factual business plan when I go get my MBA?
Be a amusing exercise. From experience the time would be better spent doing bookkeeping and tax returns for a small business of 6+ employees. You will gain some clues about things the professors never mentioned. The experience might not be worth mentioning on a resume, but the insights will be worth every hour.
marathag
Banned
Sears was sort of online, being a founding member of the dialup Prodigy Network in the mid '80s, so yeah, pre-Internet. Long distance for most users to connect, unless you were close to one of the 40? POPs where it was a local call.
$10 for 5 hours, $3 for each hour after that: with long distance on top. So not cheap. But really was the first real content portal that Yahoo.com would make famous a bit later.
9600 baudwasn't available to 1992, and still were at 14.4k in 1995, when the WWW took off, when most of the others were moving up to the new 28.8k rate
So were too soon, and as Prodigy was crashing just before the WWW got going, Sears moved away from their early enthusiasm for online
All of their Brands were made by somebody else, just like Radio Shack., with custom labels and Paint.
Walmart was about to do to K-Mart what they as SS Kresges stores had done in the '50s, kill off Mom and Pop stores. Better selection, and cheaper prices.
They renamed as K-mart in 1976 or so
I agree with other posters that if Sears could have just kept the catalog a little longer, then had the catalog make the jump to the internet, Sears would likely still be a relevant, financially stable retailer today.
I also think Sears would have been somewhat better off in any scenario without Kmart.
Sears buying Kmart was like the Titanic buying the Hindenburg
Yeah, that's what happened with Sears, apparently:
http://evonomics.com/the-ceo-of-sears-jon-haidt/
Even reading that, I can't help but shake my head at the guy's transparent foolishness.
Just throwing this out there, because it isn't necessarily an insurmountable issue, but even if Sears' management did everything right, they still had a problem: the company brand was considered old and stodgy by the mid-90s. Sears was where your grandparents shopped, not where you shopped if you were younger. The other issue is that the early internet adopters tended to be urban; the substantial number of rural customers who were still loyal to Sears were the least likely to have internet access. At some point, these customer base and branding issues would have needed to be addressed for the company to truly thrive. But the thrust of this whole thread is spot on: Sears was doing what Amazon does, but through the mail, nearly a century before Amazon even existed and they had the infrastructure in place to capitalize on the early internet if company leaders had possessed the vision to go in that direction. One way around all these issues would have been for Sears to set up its internet venture as a separate entity with a separate brand identity and a focus on younger urban customers most likely to use the internet in the early days. As that grew and succeeded, and as its older customer base adopted the internet, Sears could then begin migrating its old, legacy brand onto the new platform.
There are arguments for doing it that way. Tho at the core its salesmanship. If you are good you can make money, if not... it does not matter what organizational tricks you use. With the right advertising, buyers service, and and reliability they will draw in the new generation of web buyers.
Now that Sears is terminal I have to look for another source of high quality hand tools. Their pliers, screwdrivers, wrenches... were easy to get professional grade. Ace was carrying a limited selection of the Craftsman brand. Maybe they will continue and expand that line?
marathag
Banned
NAPA Brand is pretty good, esp. when on sale.
That said, some of the new Black&Decker isn't too bad now, and you can get those anywhere.
If you have too much money, there is always Snap-On or MAC
I remember in the late 90s going into a Gateway computer store, leafing through catalogs, and ordering something. Sears could really easily use that model. Then put the catalogs online when that becomes practical.
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Remember, too, that Amazon started as a bookstore. It was most assuredly not foreordained that the branch out into general merchandise would be a success, let alone a total steamroller.
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Remember, too, that Amazon started as a bookstore. It was most assuredly not foreordained that the branch out into general merchandise would be a success, let alone a total steamroller.
SSKresge founded K-mart in 1962. TG&Y established Family Centers in 1964, essentially making Oklahoma City the largest community without a K-Mart c.1967, when K-Mart began to blanket the country. Woolworth created Woolco around 1970. TG&Y and Woolco collapsed in the eighties. It is surprising K-Mart lasted this long, but I guess it was just the last to survive the spread of Wal-Mart.
Sears doesn’t own Craftsman anymore, and hasn’t for years. Lampeet sold it so he could continue looting the company of everything valuable.
I worked for Sears for a few years during the decline: one thing that stuck out was the company's stated plan of trying to appeal to the middle class, as opposed to retailers like Wal-Mart (where price is sacrificed towards everything else), or Nordstrom's (where shopping there is a status symbol). So, perhaps a North America without a declining middle class might be helpful?