That would require a lot of economic changes and stuff. Economy began declining because wages weren’t going up, but prices still were and so buying power ultimately went down
WI: Sears Survives
- Thread starter DominusNovus
- Start date
That would require a lot of economic changes and stuff. Economy began declining because wages weren’t going up, but prices still were and so buying power ultimately went down
But, Sears was the only local venue with a decent selection of the brand. Ace Hardware here has a limited selection.
A problem every retailer has had to contend with the past several decades. WalMart beat the problem by convincing people the junk it sells is a price bargain. Menards makes money selling B line home improvement items & third rate service through the same price point model. There are some retailers who find success pushing quality. Just maybe Sears could have retained the customers by pointing to all the discount house merchandise sitting on the alley awaiting trash pickup?
Yeah, but against Amazon though? And even then, I feel like it would be a temporary solution to a bigger problem. Appliances and so on are more on the costly side. Least with Wal-Mart, there's clothes and consumes (foods, soaps, cleaning supplies, etc).
marathag
Banned
If Sears would have dropped most clothes and turned into an upper Midwestern style Fleet hardware store(Mills, Blains, Bombgaars,Runnings,etc) in 1980s, they could have been a form of Menards or Home Depot before they got going nationwide.
In the 180s, Walmart was kicking ass from lower prices, and had kept with the large grocery section, something that most K-marts had dropped by then, and a brutal relationships with companies who wanted space on Walmart shelves.
That competition kept the merchandise fresher, with the latest items, while K-mart lagged.
the easiest way is to somehow prohibit any form of shareholder input on corporaitons. Perhaps limit CEO positions to the firstborn son, then descending from there. Also, once the position is stabilized then give the CEO complete authority, including full authority over any slaves the company owns.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-eddie-lampert-set-sears-up-to-fail-2017-5
Stop these actions. Corporate debt killed Toys ‘R Us in the US but not Canada for similar reasons.
A lot of the “retail apocalypse” is really another wave of corporate raiding.
Stop these actions. Corporate debt killed Toys ‘R Us in the US but not Canada for similar reasons.
A lot of the “retail apocalypse” is really another wave of corporate raiding.
Much like the decline in manufacturing in the US. Lots of reasons for that, but short term policies aimed at 'maximizing shareholder return' had their effect.
They even had their own network. It started out as a way of linking together all their sites and data centres as Sears Communication Network using IBM's Systems Network Architecture then started offering services—straight data transfer to outsourcing—to outside customers in 1987 under their Sears Communication Company arm. Became one of the largest third party networks in the US, and thanks to owning Dean Witter Reynolds they also offered point of sale payment services. They merged as Sears Technology Services Inc. with IBM's Integrated Systems Solutions Corp. to become ADVANTIS in 1992—later selling out their share to them in 1997—to combine their network and voice and data networking skills respectively to offer outsourcing services like design and development, integration, custom networks, value-added network services - electronic data interchange and e-mail etc.
IMO, and keep in mind I'm a radical socialist, what was needed at the core was simply to ape the original Sears-Roebuck catalog for a new era. Shift to the Internet. Focus on a remote-order menu with massive variety, like that original catalog. It's a formula that provably worked before and has again with Amazon.
Don't try to make the company compete against itself. Don't try to loot the husk and run. Hand it over to the workers, democratize the corporate structure, but more importantly than any of that just open up a nice big well-advertised Sears website, advertise this website literally everywhere in-store, make a Sears mobile app as early as possible, and generally be the early adopter of new ideas. It's what made the goddamn company in the first place, for crying out loud.
Don't try to make the company compete against itself. Don't try to loot the husk and run. Hand it over to the workers, democratize the corporate structure, but more importantly than any of that just open up a nice big well-advertised Sears website, advertise this website literally everywhere in-store, make a Sears mobile app as early as possible, and generally be the early adopter of new ideas. It's what made the goddamn company in the first place, for crying out loud.
Lucius Verus
Banned
Here's the thing, the guy was good in the financial market so it must mean that he's a genius in management. (a textbook example of why investors shouldn't touch things they had no idea about) He brought a large share of Sears Holdings, as far as I'm concerned it was his toy to break and experiment with.
A democratic company isn't guaranteed to be any good or bad, consensus takes time to build and group-think is often wrong; ei. as Lampbert showed when the people making the decisions don't have any idea how to manage Sears (don't let the janitor have a say in Sears finance, its just as bad as Lampbert). Also keep in mind that Amazon doesn't make money from its shipping services (that's just the most visible part of their business), it makes most of its money from server hosting so going online won't necessarily help Sears except in terms of market share. I think as others mentioned all the management problems aside Sears simply didn't have a competitive advantage, it was trying to be "middle class" when inflation-adjusted incomes were declining and others were specializing.
I remember back when it first became evident Sears was dead and not yet finished twitching Lampert tried to claim the company's pensions were what was stopping him from renovating stores. He had spent as much, or more, money padding his own bank account by buying back stock in the same year.
So yeah, you want the company to survive, keep the vultures away.
Its funny you mention that actually. My hometown has a "Sears hometown" store, which is basically what you said. It is staying open, and seems to be doing fine. Its also independently owned, competently managed, and regularly has customers. Also it doesn't rely on an overworked and underpaid group to clean it whenever they have a long enough break in literally everything else to keep the store function.
As long as people have the money to buy appliances and so on though. Sears' decline represented a decline in buying stuff for most people
A lot of companies have been laid waste by CEOs with too much of an 80s mindset, they aren't interested in cultivating a clientele, employees or infrastructure. They are out for the short money. They will do things like try to Raise Company revenues by lowing employee hours to bare minimums, when this leads to a loss of sales during the holidays due to customer frustrations, they respond with eliminating positions that are occupied by long term experience employees.
These sort of things can hurt some companies more than others and the fact there are companies on the stock exchange that have no business being there doesn't help either. There are many a profitable company that has become crippled by the pressure of producing dividends, conducting stock buy backs or pushing a CEOs vanity money making scheme(Like when Borders Book Stores, started taking money from publishers and record companies to push a mediocre books/albums onto their customers)
These sort of things can hurt some companies more than others and the fact there are companies on the stock exchange that have no business being there doesn't help either. There are many a profitable company that has become crippled by the pressure of producing dividends, conducting stock buy backs or pushing a CEOs vanity money making scheme(Like when Borders Book Stores, started taking money from publishers and record companies to push a mediocre books/albums onto their customers)
Pretty much in a nutshell sums it up. You’d need to have Sears and several other companies avoid this issue. Though Sears would need to have products catered to the next generation of people and change with the times
Back in the early 1990s, perhaps earlier - I don't remember. there were a series of editorials in the Wall Street Journal complaining about the board of directors being asleep at the wheel. To many companies were run by CEO who were acting without oversight or review, or any coherent policy handed down, other than "bring us large payments". I've seen this in some non profits I've been involved with. The directors failing completely their responsibility to set long term policy and regularly monitor if it remains valid & if it is being followed. The actuality is the directors have more responsibility for the long term health of a organization than the CEO. A item so many seem unaware of, or are uninterested in.
Doesn’t help that most Board of Director’s serve on multiple companies.
I can see that. I'm involved in two non profits and under pressure to return to a third. Being able to say no to everyone that needs you is a critical skill. I suspect for many of these over tasked its ego thing. They feel more important acquiring titles like trophies for the wall. If there is a salary/compensation involved then it looks like easy money, in that its easy to neglect the responsibilities the compensation is for.
If anything, I think that Sears focused too much on blaming the Internet.
I wish I could find it, but I remember reading an article, from 2015 IIRC, that dealt with retailers' misconceptions' about "showrooming" (customers entering a retail store to check out a product, then going home to buy it online for less) and "webrooming" (people going online to check out a product and then buying it in-store)
As it turns out, from the surveys conducted, about 20% of consumers engaged in showrooming, and 65% engaged in webrooming.
The top reasons were:
-The shopper did not want to buy a product without touching it first (trying on the coat to see if it fit, opening the oven door to see how heavy it was, etc)
-The shopper wanted to look for the best deal and learn about the product before making a decision to purchase it or even look at it in person
-The shopper did not want to wait or pay for shipping; they were also wary of "porch pirates", delays and breakage
-The shopper was unsure if they wanted the product at all and made a snap decision when they interacted with it.
The conclusion was that for a retailer to thrive, a robust physical and web presence is needed, so if they showroom, they buy it from your site and if they webroom, they buy it from your store. Most importantly, you need something that people want to buy.
Sears didn't have that. Before Sears Canada closed, I basically thought:
Clothes: Sears' aren't nice, and too expensive for what they are. For low-end stuff, Old Navy and Wal-Mart are cheaper, as are the TJX discounters. For mid-price stuff, mall brands have a wider selection, and for high-end stuff somewhere like Nordstrom or a specialty retailer/boutique would be better; and something like Nordstrom Rack has nice stuff for cheap. Specialty outdoor stuff you usually couldn't find there either.
Appliances: Home Depot, Rona and Lowe's have more selection and better prices, specialty appliance stores have stuff they don't
Tools: Canadian Tire and the three above have more and better stuff for less
Housewares: Walmart does it cheaper, Bed Bath and Beyond has more, Hudson's Bay has nicer stuff
Food and building supplies: They didn't have them
Electronics and Gadgets: Sears was a non-starter
Store experience is a big thing too, which is why Nordstrom offers valet parking, a shopping consultant, an espresso bar, free or inexpensive alterations, and the nicest bathrooms in the mall. Walmart is on the opposite end of the retail spectrum, yet offers its own range of services- a McDonald's, a discount haircut place, and a parcel locker service for stuff you buy online and not just for Walmart purchases. Both offer ship-to-store now as well.
At Sears? The stores were stodgy mazes, you were either hounded by staff or couldn't find any at all, and it was a running joke that you could never find a checkout, if you did nobody would be there and they were always out of stock on everything.
I wish I could find it, but I remember reading an article, from 2015 IIRC, that dealt with retailers' misconceptions' about "showrooming" (customers entering a retail store to check out a product, then going home to buy it online for less) and "webrooming" (people going online to check out a product and then buying it in-store)
As it turns out, from the surveys conducted, about 20% of consumers engaged in showrooming, and 65% engaged in webrooming.
The top reasons were:
-The shopper did not want to buy a product without touching it first (trying on the coat to see if it fit, opening the oven door to see how heavy it was, etc)
-The shopper wanted to look for the best deal and learn about the product before making a decision to purchase it or even look at it in person
-The shopper did not want to wait or pay for shipping; they were also wary of "porch pirates", delays and breakage
-The shopper was unsure if they wanted the product at all and made a snap decision when they interacted with it.
The conclusion was that for a retailer to thrive, a robust physical and web presence is needed, so if they showroom, they buy it from your site and if they webroom, they buy it from your store. Most importantly, you need something that people want to buy.
Sears didn't have that. Before Sears Canada closed, I basically thought:
Clothes: Sears' aren't nice, and too expensive for what they are. For low-end stuff, Old Navy and Wal-Mart are cheaper, as are the TJX discounters. For mid-price stuff, mall brands have a wider selection, and for high-end stuff somewhere like Nordstrom or a specialty retailer/boutique would be better; and something like Nordstrom Rack has nice stuff for cheap. Specialty outdoor stuff you usually couldn't find there either.
Appliances: Home Depot, Rona and Lowe's have more selection and better prices, specialty appliance stores have stuff they don't
Tools: Canadian Tire and the three above have more and better stuff for less
Housewares: Walmart does it cheaper, Bed Bath and Beyond has more, Hudson's Bay has nicer stuff
Food and building supplies: They didn't have them
Electronics and Gadgets: Sears was a non-starter
Store experience is a big thing too, which is why Nordstrom offers valet parking, a shopping consultant, an espresso bar, free or inexpensive alterations, and the nicest bathrooms in the mall. Walmart is on the opposite end of the retail spectrum, yet offers its own range of services- a McDonald's, a discount haircut place, and a parcel locker service for stuff you buy online and not just for Walmart purchases. Both offer ship-to-store now as well.
At Sears? The stores were stodgy mazes, you were either hounded by staff or couldn't find any at all, and it was a running joke that you could never find a checkout, if you did nobody would be there and they were always out of stock on everything.
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