Sears Files for Bankruptcy

[E365]

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

Quote
The company issued a statement saying it intends to stay in business, keeping stores which are profitable open, along with the Sears and Kmart online shopping sites.

 

[dishdude]

Heard it here first. Not surprised. Sad, they still employ a lot of folks. Hopefully they can emerge and restructure as a competitive retailer.

 

[E365]

I lived near their store at the Mall of America for 20+ years. You'd think it would be their flagship store that they were proud of. Nope.

Just a sad, dreary, horribly outdated, poorly lit store with empty shelves everywhere.

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

Wow! The end of an era. I hate to go in there. It's depressing. Even the Craftsman tools are almost not even worth trading in they are now such low Chinese quality. Just holding a replacement screwdriver feel and looks cheap. Voodoo economics sure works great. Proves people at the top never have enough and don't like to share no mater the cost.

 

[daves87rs]

Surprised it is not chapter 7....get the feeling they will push for it...

 

[k1xv]

I have a house full of excellent Kenmore kitchen and laundry appliances, bought 15 years ago when this house was built. Sears used to be my go to place for appliances, tools, and auto supplies. But I have not been there for the last 10 years.

 

[demarpaint]

I knew it was coming, so no surprise there. It's sad though.

 

[ragtoplvr]

all this filing does is allow Lambert and the board to extract more money from carcass, Thieves. Simple common thieves. He will never be a CEO again, but with his millions doubt he cares. I hope someone raises a breach of fiduciary responsibility lawsuit against him. Drain him for legal fees

 

[Smoky14]

Montgomery Wards use to be a main competitor, still have a tool set my Father left me from MW. Never have broken one and Dad got them before WWII....made in America.
Times change...not always for the better.

Smoky

 

[CourierDriver]

I remember Sears in childhood,,well that was the 50s, now foreign companies have broken the made in America, but life goes on......enough said..now its a plastic world...

 

[Virtus_Probi]

This really does make me sad, getting the Wards, Sears, and JC Penney's catalogs before Xmas was always a huge event in my life when I was a kid.
I would pore through all three for weeks and fold over a corner on a page that showed something I wanted....the corner was down on the side I wanted to point out attention to, but I don't think I used a pen or pencil to mark the exact item so I don't know how my mom knew what I really wanted. She figured it out somehow! I guess I would get maybe 5% of what I asked for, but dreaming about what I might actually get was the fun part.
I usually thought Wards was "nicer" than Sears and that Penney's was kind of weird, but they were really quite similar. We usually went to Wards because there was one close in Skokie while Sears was a longer drive away in Golf.

I knew that was coming at some point, but it still gets me down. Was going to cut through the local Sears at our closest mall when we took our daughter shopping yesterday, but I decided it would make me too upset.

 

[Eddie]

I find this very sad. My family was raised using SEARS and Montgomery Wards wares, tools and clothes. Ed

 

[Sayjac]

Eddie Lampert is living proof that because one may (or may not) be a great hedge fund manager doesn't mean you can run retail company, except perhaps into the ground. As noted, this no surprise and seen coming for a long time. Good article on how Lampert rode Sears Holdings to the bottom.

https://www.chicagobusiness.com/retail/eddie-lampert-rides-worst-trade-his-life-all-way-down

 

[Andrew1972]

Great time for the employees to get laid off and company go down. Economy is strong and they hopefully employees can be absorbed into the rest. Its not like its 2008 and people are desperate for jobs.

 

[Kira]

The employees at the Sears near me (Hackensack, NJ) say their store will be the last to close as Sears owns it lock, stock and barrel.

I guess I'll go there today and see if I can spend my $10 OFF a $40 purchase "Shop Your Own Way FREE CASH" offer.

End of an era? Yes. Sears management was angelic? NO WAY in HECK. They manipulated markets and put the squeeze on manufacturers.

What Sears did to piano makers was the stuff of legend and is still taught in business classes.

Too bad for the workers there though.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

SEARS stock helped me afford my first car. Retail in general is in trouble. All I can say is that the house needs some new appliances. Perhaps we'll see some decent discounts.

 

[MONKEYMAN]

My mom grew up in a Sears prefab house. Most of our clothes were Sears when growing up. This is going to end an Era.

 

[Snagglefoot]

The pullout of Sears from Canada went badly. No expert, but I heard the employees got stiffed on their pensions.

 

[locomaster1969]

A former Sears advertisement was "Sears has everything". As a child my Parents wisely spent their hard earned money at Sears because Sears sold durable, quality merchandise. Mom bought Dads work clothes at
Sears because they would last and hold up good. Our Kenmore appliances lasted for decades. I remember that Harvest Gold colored refrigerator we had. In my adult years none of my major appliances have made it more than 10 years. I no longer shop at Sears. The quality just isn't there anymore. To be a CEO of a large retail company you must attract talent in all your aspects of operation to maintain a competitive edge. You need a management team with a vision and a plan to get there. Too bad Sears didn't understand the potential of online sales when the web was in it's infancy.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Ironic that Sears did not do well with online sales, since they practically invented catalogue sales.