- My Forums
- Tiger Rant
- LSU Recruiting
- SEC Rant
- Saints Talk
- Pelicans Talk
- More Sports Board
- Fantasy Sports
- Golf Board
- Soccer Board
- O-T Lounge
- Tech Board
- Home/Garden Board
- Outdoor Board
- Health/Fitness Board
- Movie/TV Board
- Book Board
- Music Board
- Political Talk
- Money Talk
- Fark Board
- Gaming Board
- Travel Board
- Food/Drink Board
- Ticket Exchange
- TD Help Board
Customize My Forums- View All Forums
- Show Left Links
- Topic Sort Options
- Trending Topics
- Recent Topics
- Active Topics
Started By
Message
0
Posted on 1/8/19 at 10:43 am to Tyga Woods
quote:
Corporations close locations that constantly lose money. I believe Subway closed about 1200 locations over the past 3 years. Happens all the time.
Yes. Companies close 10 percent of stores for competative reasons all the time. More if they are restructuring. Sears/Kmart had combined 3900 stores when Lampert took over in 2005/2006. By 2012 it was up to 4,000, and now, it's down to 475. So that's almost 90 percent closures in 6 years.
Subway closed 1200 US locations out of about 23,000. That's normal.
quote:
I just think Sears was a sinking ship that no one could’ve saved. And I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt regarding his attempt to purchase, as I would give anyone unless there was absolute proof.
Sears was making money before he took over. Yes, it was struggling, but it was at least somewhat, barely, profitable. ESL turned around KMart and turned it into a cash machine. Why?
You might want to look more into the life of Lampert. Back when he did this deal, he fancied himself as the second coming of Warren Buffet. Berkshire Hathaway was a crappy textile mill but it threw off cash, along with other smart investments he made, that allowed the cash to be used in other lines of businesses.
Lampert viewed Sears/KMart the same way. Maybe the business would survive, maybe it would not, but in the meantime, it would throw off tons of cash that he could use to invest in other companies. ESL pulled out stupid amounts of cash, the whole Seritage thing, etc Yes, he loaned some back, mainly because his ego wouldn't let him go down as a failed CEO.
He was CEO but was only in Chicago once a year. He tried to both run the company, and his hedge fund, and other companies his hedge fund was involved in, from Florida. The people he put in at Sears sucked.
Take a look at this article for starters, there are plenty more out there about who Lampert really is.
LINK
Posted on 1/8/19 at 10:46 am to Tyga Woods
quote:
To be fair, Sears wasn’t in the grocery game. Not a huge market for curbside pickup of U.S Polo Assn. jeans and 1990’s model Reebok’s
What I mean is to say that you can still innovate despite the massive inertia of a pre-established, old school business model
Posted on 1/8/19 at 10:54 am to Tigeralum2008
quote:
Walmart's curbside grocery service has been a huge win for them They are showing Sears how to pivot and be niche in an age of increased competition
Sears’s had online ordering, 3rd party online ordering, in store pickup, and curbside pickup for more than a decade now. The posts about Sears not innovating for the internet aren’t true. What killed Sears is Craftsman turning to shite.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 10:58 am to member12
quote:Sears absolutely did not have the distribution network. It was incredibly inefficient. Arguably one of the worst types of inventory logistics in history
Sears has the distribution infrastructure.
It took like a month to get inventory to customers. It was so bad, they canceled the catalog in the 90's because people preferred just going to walmart/best buy/wherever to just buy stuff in person
Sears would have still died, not because of Amazon but because of places like Walmart and Best Buy
This post was edited on 1/8/19 at 11:03 am
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:01 am to Mingo Was His NameO
quote:
Yeah Walmart has the brand recognition,, capital, physical infrastructure, and logistics to make a huge online play if they are smart. They seem to be doing most things right and the moment so we will see what happens. Amazon has become less novel and hip as it's become so mainstream that Walmart can claw their way back into this thing.
I agree, I really think Walmart is going to give Amazon a run for their money. Ive been impressed with the prices and selection the past few times I have shopped around.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:13 am to greenwave
quote:
Yeah Walmart has the brand recognition,, capital, physical infrastructure, and logistics to make a huge online play if they are smart.
They have been more successful than most bricks and mortar stores in moving online. Still a long road though.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:20 am to greenwave
quote:
I agree, I really think Walmart is going to give Amazon a run for their money. Ive been impressed with the prices and selection the past few times I have shopped around.
Walmart is doing all the right things. They just need to figure out how to infiltrate the city centers (NYC, CHI,etc).
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:25 am to LSUFanHouston
Why did they allow him to do this?
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:37 am to member12
quote:
They were basically Amazon before we had the internet.
Sears has the distribution infrastructure. Amazon had the vision and is building the infrastructure.
Yep.
They owned mobile retailing before it was digitized and had the infrastructure and distribution network to back it. Their problem was a lack of vision and foresight.
They shelved their catalog right before the internet came to fruition and leaned into their brick and mortar footprint to compete with Walmart and the other big box retailers. They started getting their marketshare in different segments eaten into by stores like Best Buy and Home Depot, and had no answer strategically in how to compete.
If they'd have resuscitated their catalog and put it on the internet when it started taking off in terms of mass adoption, they might well have both overtaken Walmart and beaten Amazon to the punch.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:37 am to cajunangelle
quote:
Why did they allow him to do this?
By "they" I assume you mean the board, and the answer is that he was the CEO and chair of the board and the board was packed with his cronies.
Just like many, many other large public corporations.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:37 am to Pilot Tiger
quote:
Sears absolutely did not have the distribution network. It was incredibly inefficient. Arguably one of the worst types of inventory logistics in history
It took like a month to get inventory to customers. It was so bad, they canceled the catalog in the 90's because people preferred just going to walmart/best buy/wherever to just buy stuff in person
Sears would have still died, not because of Amazon but because of places like Walmart and Best Buy
This is correct. This correlation between Amazon and the Sears Catalog is always cited and always offbase.
Sears catalog was great because it brought rural areas a vast array of items they couldn’t get otherwise. But it took a long time.
Amazon perfected (or at least improved) the distribution dynamic and worked of shipping efficiency first and then ramped up the items available. What Sears had was that they were known as a one-stop catalog and had they partnered with an Amazon 25 years ago, there could have been value in the name (maybe) becasue of Americans familiarity with the catalog process. However, as you mentioned, the catalog was already basically dead by the time Amazon debuted as an online bookseller.
Sears was woefully behind the times by the time shopping malls started popping up.
Big box stores killed the inefficient catalog and amazon finished off the rest.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:39 am to hiltacular
quote:
They just need to figure out how to infiltrate the city centers (NYC, CHI,etc).
How do people in the true urban core get anything? I've never lived in something like a downtown area. So many people in NYC don't have cars. How do they get groceries, home goods, clothes, etc?
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:47 am to LSUFanHouston
quote:
How do people in the true urban core get anything? I've never lived in something like a downtown area. So many people in NYC don't have cars. How do they get groceries, home goods, clothes, etc?
Walk. There's a whole foods, Walgreens, cleaners all within three blocks from my house.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:49 am to LSUFanHouston
quote:
How do people in the true urban core get anything? I've never lived in something like a downtown area. So many people in NYC don't have cars. How do they get groceries, home goods, clothes, etc?
Bodegas for a lot of the essential items/basic groceries. Many people simply do not buy groceries and eat out constantly. Amazon is obviously huge. I rarely see Walmart deliveries.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:49 am to LSUFanHouston
quote:
How do they get groceries, home goods, clothes, etc?
I lived in NYC for a little over a year. We definitely didn't buy in bulk as much. No need to really. We didn't have a lot of space and just about anything could be purchased within a few blocks.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:49 am to The Boat
quote:
The posts about Sears not innovating for the internet aren’t true. What killed Sears is Craftsman turning to shite.
That and letting their retail stores age and fall into disrepair. The local Sears location felt like walking into a Montgomery Ward or Service Merchandise. The one I visited a few times while I was in PA was even worse, that location had half the shelves empty and spots where the roof had been leaking for a while but never fixed. I only went because they had NOS US-made mechanics tools still out on the few shelves in that section of the store, stuff that wasn't listed on their website. The new stuff sold in Lowe's is only suitable for kids and the guys that do craft projects they see on Facebook.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:51 am to cleeveclever
quote:Yep, and at one time people went to Sears for the quality-high-end-in-the-times, tools/ride on lawn mowers. HVAC was installed on a Sears Card with ridiculous interest rates because they could.
This is correct. This correlation between Amazon and the Sears Catalog is always cited and always offbase.
Sears catalog was great because it brought rural areas a vast array of items they couldn’t get otherwise. But it took a long time.
Amazon perfected (or at least improved) the distribution dynamic and worked of shipping efficiency first and then ramped up the items available. What Sears had was that they were known as a one-stop catalog and had they partnered with an Amazon 25 years ago, there could have been value in the name (maybe) becasue of Americans familiarity with the catalog process. However, as you mentioned, the catalog was already basically dead by the time Amazon debuted as an online bookseller.
Sears was woefully behind the times by the time shopping malls started popping up.
Big box stores killed the inefficient catalog and amazon finished off the rest.
People liked and once trusted the SERVICING part of the appliances; but the top dogs at Sears micromanaged that to ruin. People quit trusting Sears.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:54 am to hiltacular
quote:
Bodegas for a lot of the essential items/basic groceries. Many people simply do not buy groceries and eat out constantly. Amazon is obviously huge. I rarely see Walmart deliverie
Which makes me wonder if WMT is even interested in that market. WMT, Target, etc have all tried small-format urban stores and they don't seem to work.
WMT may be willing to let Amazon deal with the headaches of shipping, especially since Amazon is investing in the prime vans.
Posted on 1/8/19 at 11:55 am to cajunangelle
quote:
People liked and once trusted the SERVICING part of the appliances; but the top dogs at Sears micromanaged that to ruin. People quit trusting Sears.
Home Depot is putting a large focus towards the service side of things / contracting.
Page 4 of 6
Popular
Back to top
Follow TigerDroppings for LSU Football News