fixed the title for you

and contrary to your usual posts I wouldn't call this "news" (to anyone but Eddie Lampert; god that's gotta sting and leave a mark)

Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it.

I didn't know if going completely doom-and-gloom right out the gate was called for, but on reflection... it's called for.

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I'm surprised they made it this long.

Although I really like their tools and appreciate browsing the tools department.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

Didn't they just sell off the Craftsman brand? Kenmore, too?

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

going back to mail order firearms might help.

Sears and Kmart. Great calls. Lampert was once considered by some the next warren buffett. These bets have taken him from $3.1B in 2013 to $1.9B in 2018 (think of what the S&P has done during that time; or buffett or bezos)

And with the commitments he has made and will need to make I think the $1.9B is a mirage.

Yep, to Black and Decker. I don't think they sold Kenmore. They made a deal with Amazon to carry Kenmore items, which if further driving people from going into the store.

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If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR

In Canada, Sears tried the "restructuring thing" - they moved alot of dead merch to dedicated liquidation stores, tried shutting about half to recover and then finally the whole thing imploded... Sears now is gone in Canada... Sounds like it's repeating down there with the mothership...

They couldn't crack the nut - while other retailers were evolving, Sears carried crap, maintained poor staffing levels, and steadfastedly stuck to their island cash model - how many times did you have to go to housewares to pay for something from men's wear because the cash wasn't open...?

I went to a sears outlet store about a year ago and bought my $4k fridge for $650 after coupons, discounts, mark downs, and an eBay 10% gift card. And that includes a 5 year extended warranty!! Honestly it was a poor mans sub zero that I got for a homeless persons price. They have to had to pay me money on that transaction, so no wonder that they are still in a kind of free fall. I think real estate is there last meaningful asset, if they haven mortgaged all that off yet too..

It will never cease to amaze me. They were Amazon before there was Amazon. And then couldn't figure out how to be Amazon.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

They were Amazon before there was Amazon. And then couldn't figure out how to be Amazon. //

Actually Barnes and Noble and Borders were Amazon before and at the beginning of Amazon. They were crushed while never noticing or responding to the attack, and since there are 1000's of other companies that have done the same thing. But Amazon is like a black hole, it just keeps sucking matter(companies) and it is getting so big and powerful that no one can resist its pull. Wallmart is like light trying to escape now, some particles seem to make it, but in the end there is only black...


But they outlasted Wollworths and Montgomery Wards, so they got that going for them I guess..

I thought that's why he bought it. To breadk it up and sell the real estate for more than he paid. Then he tried to make a horse race out of the actual retail part. Then kept doubling down on bad ideas (like the ones you describe above). Now it's too late and the real estate is worth far less than what his hedge fund has loaned or guaranteed to vendors, banks etc.

your position is correct but the ship has sailed (and sunk).

Other than a few prime sites, most of their real estate is probably closer to a liability than an asset. Big boxes like Sears are dead. The new thing in CRE is repurposing dead big box/mall properties into multifamily residential but that only works if the real estate is really, really cheap.

Sears may be on its last legs, but those legs are wearing corduroy toughskins, and they look mah-ve-lous!

Well, when they started selling real estate assets to generate working capital to cover their losing business model, the writing was on the wall. Kind of sad, really. Times change.

LR still available for that. This place is never going out of business.

Hahahahaha! The annual August trip to Sears for school clothes -- including Toughskins corduroy trousers -- was a regular part of the year for us. :-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

I can't recall the last time I went into either store. 20 years ago, maybe 30.

I saw on the news the other night that Amazon accounted for 90% of all online retail sales during the holiday season of the four major retailers.

Walmart had 4%. Best Buy had 4%. Target had 2%.

Amazon also had more online sales during the period than every other company in existence... combined. They controlled more than 50% of the online retail market.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Oh yeah. The Sears catalog women's lingerie section was also the porn of my formative years. I learned to appreciate the female figure through many hours of secretive after-school study of those pages.
Nothing better til years later when my folks bought me a Sports Illustrated subscription and Cheryl Tiegs showed up in the mailbox under a waterfall. Ahh, good mammaries. Err, memories.

Yeah, the irony is they started in the mail order business and probably killed a lot of brick and mortar retail stores back in the day.

Reading the history of Sears, it sure sounds like they were the Amazon of the late 19th century.

Hahahahahaha! Exactly so! ;-)

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"Politics is just show business for ugly people."

You can thank my wife for that. She probably accounted for 10% of Amazon's holiday sales. We should have gifted massage gift cards to our USPS and UPS drivers.

Amazon really couldn't make it much easier -- their platform is easy to navigate, everything is there, pricing is solid, and if pricing isn't any better than a local price it's still far more convenient. If the rumor is true about Amazon considering a purchase of Target, it's lights out for everyone else. Not only would it change the physical retail space and deepen their reach into grocery types of sales, but would add a valuable warehouse network to their distribution channels, quite possibly allowing them to continue their mission of owning their own deliveries in more places and cutting back UPS and USPS relationships.

Sears missed the mark in ecommerce in a big way and then still had dilapidated stores to make them doubly unappealing. Their website is terrible enough to convince me that they don't want to sell anything online (at least the last time I tried to order on it a couple of years ago). And that sucks, because they were iconic and my first choice for tools since they carried Craftsman and a first choice when shopping appliances. If only they went back to their roots as a toilet paper company....

What I can't understand is why other companies aren't willing to provide the level of customer service that Amazon provides? They make it not only easy to buy stuff, but easy to return as well. I've had less hassles with Amazon than I have had with any other retailer.

Some of the online retailers just have what it takes in that respect. Amazon is definitely one of them. Backcountry/Competitive Cyclist is another. I receive more personalized service from them than I did from local specialty shops. We had a high-end bike shop that shuttered last year and even though they knew me on a first name basis & the gear I like, their service was just awful in every way. Honestly, Competitive felt like they were more personalized and actually cared, so I stopped going to that local shop except for when they'd have a massive sale. I wasn't alone and now they're no longer. (Now we have a really awesome shop that's won me over.)

The places I see doing well are the hyper local businesses that understand the online behemoths can only go so far with customer service and they jump in to fill the void -- offering niche products or a personalized service that goes beyond what an Amazon or Competitive Cyclist could offer. Local booksellers are apparently doing well because there's something people like about getting personalized recommendations and having a conversation about what they've read.

But the mall shops of the world sit somewhere in the middle and still seem confused. Macy's is going to be one of the next to take it on the chin, mark my words.

Easy to return? Ha!

It used to be easy to return, but now it is free to ship to your house and $50 to return. We used to be close to 100% Amazon, but now we are doing more and more at places with physical stores if we need to return. Amazon is great if you know you won't need to return, but if we are not 100% sure (and when you buy online it is much harder to tell sometimes) we do a lot more comparison shopping.

No idea about online, but Walmart B&M stores are ridiculously easy to return stuff around here.

IKEA was an easy return when the item we had already bought (unopened) went on sale at 50% off, even though we were a few days past the return period. They just gave us half our money back (which we then spent on more stuff in the store.

I prefer to buy from B&M, unless it's something that I know exactly what I want it's usually quicker to drive 5 minutes to the store.

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Swimming Workout of the Day:

Favourite Swim Sets:

2020 National Masters Champion - M50-54 - 50m Butterfly

A few years ago, I ordered a new camera lens for a specific job. As I watched the tracking, it was obviously not making it on time (either the Prime delivery date or in time for the job that I needed it for). I contacted Amazon and explained my issue. They immediately shipped out a second lens, next day delivery for no cost to me. I asked what I was supposed to do if the first lens still showed up. They told me I could keep it, sell it, whatever I wanted to do with it, but I was still only going to be billed for one of them since it was their screwup. That was a $1200 lens. She made it sound like I had dropped a penny, really didn't care.

Then I hear that Bezos is worth more than Gates, and it all makes sense now.

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Starting from scratch...

Are you sure it was Amazon or one of their third party vendors?

I have never had to pay for an Amazon return, shipping or otherwise. And I have returned a lot of stuff.

Yup, we learned the lesson the hard way. They changed their return policy a little while ago. Now only items that have the tag "free returns" in their description are free returns. And obviously stuff that arrives broken, so I supposed you could always take a hammer to whatever you don't want.

Free return

Not Free return

So stuff that can't break, free to return. Stuff that can break in shipping, has a fee to return. Scamazon, rhymes with Amazon. Might want to get used to it.

When you order from Amazon, you're ordering from particular vendors who list their items on Amazon. So the company who sent you the lens was a 3rd party.