ACTUALLY, IT WASN’T A GREAT DAY FOR SEARS ANYWHERE
You won’t see a press release from the S.C. Department of Commerce about this, but a hundred South Carolinians will be out of work in two months when national retail giant Sears closes its Harbison store in Columbia, S.C.
Nor will you hear S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley say “it’s a great day in South Carolina.”
Two years ago, the Palmetto State was competing for Sears corporate headquarters. Now it’s watching the Illinois-based company lay off workers.
The 2013 holiday season was a disastrous one for Sears – with additional losses piled onto an already terrible financial performance for the year. The company is now projected to lose as much as $1.4 billion during the fiscal year ending February 1.
In fact one analyst recently noted the store was in a “death spiral” and could be out of business altogether by 2017.
Wow …
At a minimum, future store closings are likely.
Sears sought to lure shoppers to stores with deep discounts on appliances during the waning days of the holiday season, but those efforts clearly did not have the desired effect.
As recently as November, Sears shares were above $67 – well below their 2007 peak of $190 – but up nearly 20 percent for the year. Today? Shares are hovering in the $35 range.
58 comments
SEARS: RIP!!!
Gone like the Wind.
Any company that closes down it’s catalog business one year before the internet business takes off: deserves to die!!
This is what happens when a Mitt Romney type, with no retail experience, buys a great American business and runs it into the ground.
Virtually, the same situation at J.C. Penny.
Nitrat,
Dumb ass comment.
Craig
I hate to see Sears go, but its been in the shitter for at least 12 years mostly due to Eddie Lampert, another Ayn Rand disciple…
Family Guy agrees..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5087isMudEs
Craig,
Eat shit and die.
nitrat
False, retail jumbling has been around longer than youve been alive. Sears couldnt keep up with market demands and will require rebranding or an overhaul to rebound to glory day numbers. cc: Barbarians at the Gate
SHIT.
Agreed.
Death of an old giant. Really sad.
What I do not understand is why they don’t just close the
K-Mart brand. I loved K-Mart as a child, but now most of their stores are the
equivalent of shopping in a dark alley. They can never compete with Wal-Mart or
Target, but Sears could because it is an unique store. Growing up before Bass
Pro Shops, and the like, the one thing my mother had to say to get my father to
drive her to the mall was to mention Sears. It really was the Men’s Store. It
was the one store that you could visit any time and not be surprised to see
alot of men, between the Auto Center, Hardware, Electronics, Sports Equipment,
and a Men’s Clothing Department that sells manual labor working clothes, This
was the store you could see Tim the Toolman Taylor or Archie Bunker shopping
in, while their wives and children were at the White’s and Belk’s, and Sam
Goody’s. I think if they closed down K-Mart and focused exclusively to
returning to The Tough Side of Sears they could bring Sears back.
if Sears and K-Mart can hold on long enough, Wal*Mart will eventually piss off enough customers for them to become viable once again….
While always deferring to the TBG’s unfathomable wisdom, I must concur in part with the primary respondent.
Sears was always a mans store. The attempt to draw women resulted in their losses. Women shopped there all the time, when they needed something for their men.
I guess Snap-on will become my tool of choice. So long Craftsman. :-* You will be sorely missed.
Snap-on is in a whole different league than craftsman. Craftsman is cheap stuff for someone who will use it casually. Snap-on is professional-grade stuff.
Either way, Sears lost its identity and everything has gone cheap and undesirable. No way can they compete anymore.
I guess you are too young to remember when any Craftsman tool purchased at Sears had a lifetime warranty and could be returned for a replacement.
Yep yep
The saying I grew up with was “The difference between Craftsman/Snap-On warranty and everyone elses. Everyone else guarantees replacement When they break. Craftsman/Snap-on is If they break”
I’m surprised K-Mart is still in business. Wal-Mart has certainly gone down hill as well over the past few years.
I loved the REAL Sears on Harden St,but will miss the Harbinson store’s men’s room.Same thing w/K Mart on Charleston Highway.Word gets around;the handicapped stall,and what all.What you talking about-the,’tough side of Sears’?Nowadays,you go to ,Lowe’s or Home Depot,for ‘real men’.I don’t want to argue,but I think I’ve met you before…
Wal-Mart really whooped Sears’ ass in the 80’s and 90’s and Sears never recovered. That was the beginning of the end.
I used to work at Sears as a tools and lawn & garden sales associate. It seemed that every year spelled doom for the company. I read several articles saying they would be out of business in a year or two, but it never happened. Also, these articles typically came out in January.
The share price is definitely low, but it’ll have to go a lot lower for them to die. They still have a very loyal customer base and they are the cream of the crop when it comes to appliances. The glory days where they would give free popcorn to the kids and tailor your suit while they repaired your watch are assuredly gone. But the brand has many ways of surviving.
My friend that I worked with ( The Automotive field ) broke his tool made in America, by Sears. He got a replacement for free, as in all sears tools. That was why we would buy them. Made in america was the trademark. When he showed me the China mark, I was blown away. Mitt, Sears, and all the Rich people of the USA, screw u. The 1% that owns us should be shot, ASAP. Gran Tango comes to mind, a true american for the rest of us, paid for by the 1%. Vote people without a blind eye !
Craftsman. Never Sears brand.
It was Craftsman brand, made in China, Blew us both away.
I just meant the guarantee. Didn’t know they had jumped on the MIC bandwagon. China or Taiwan. Nust curious. No diff really.
Worried about Sears? when is last time you even stepped foot in one? The chain once had status in retail world, but it is now a dinosaur. Sorry, but things change.
Yea, brings back the Tango era. When a republican had values, before becomming pedaphiles and Homo’s.
I say good riddance. The company is being run into the ground. Craftsman tools are a shadow of what they used to be. Every time I walk through I’m hounded by various salesmen, even if I’m just walking around an appliance section, not even in it, to get somewhere else. I’ve heard horror stories from people unfortunate enough to have a credit card through them. Their car shops are shady. I knew someone who worked for a part of the company that does installations and home repair and suffice to say will buy the damn tools and supplies and do it myself before I call them. Their stores have walled off sections of their space because they can’t fill the stores anymore with merchandise, as it doesn’t sell. Their CEO is a dipshit that is pretty much watching his company burn. K-Mart is crap and has been crap and just adds more fuel to the bonfire that is the remains of this company in the coming years.
There’s a reason they are dying, let them die.
SHIT SHIT. YOU N NITRAT. SHIT.
Agreed.
This is a prime example of why a company should not compromise their quality. Sears sold out a long time ago. Every company is replaceable.
There is talk that JC Penny may be out of business by the end of 2014.
Didn’t JC Penny go Gay big-time w/ its advertising, and the backlash was so outrageous against them, they had to fire the Gay PR Genius, and beg forgiveness for their hate and arrogance toward decent America…
Talk about being tone deaf….
Anyway: These companies are whoring themselves to the skank pop culture, and the people w/ the money are bailing out on them. People are voting w/ their pocketbooks…
Sears is just not good at what they do. It’s a testament to the American market that Sears has lasted this long…
But in the Obama-economy, so many have collapsed. Sears may have finally been do in, like Obama has done to so many other Americans…
Sears needs to thank Bush for all his years of a prosperous marketplace. I’m sure he helped them make billions because of the good years, BO (Before Obama.)
GT, you have some excellent points……
Thank you, S.H.
Too bad it’s the top of his head.
Sears was downsizing way before Oshit took office, you twat!
Oh it’s not Obama’s fault…couldn’t be. He’s not responsible for anything, never is, and gets credit for anything good, if there was something (which there is not)…..I got it…
50,000 people laid off from Sears under George H. Bush. So, yeah…not Obama’s fault…
Wow! …and after 12 years on Republican rule to boot!
Ain’t it always Bush’s fault. Classic answer from a Classic Obama Dumb@$$…Bush caused Hurricane Katrina too…if you people were not so F*#ckin dangerous, you’d be hilarious….
GEORGE H. BUSH, you damn idiot…
Glad to see you expanding your sycopathy.
Concentrating your ignorance and stupidty on one man can’t be good…Not to mention it makes you look like a Dumb@$$ to keep going to the same cliches to protect your indefensible god…
Says the man who is constantly yelling “Obama, Obama, Obama!!!”
Difference is: I’m accurate. You’re full of $#!*….
just like Haley
Haley gets credit for trying to sheild us from the extremely damaging policies of Obama…which she has done to some extent, and it’s been good for SC.
She deserves credit for that, w/ the SC legislature.
News flash, Bush is gay ! That now makes sense, as to why all the republicans distance themselves from him other than Graham. See, you really are smart Tango, you just didn’t know it !
So are you saying JCPenney tanked because of the then-CEO, NOT Obama?
You mean when a company fails, it SOMETIMES is actually poor management on their part, and NOT the President’s fault?
You are contradicting yourself GT. Please explain!!!
Obama may be the biggest impediment to free enterprise in the US, in the last 100 years….
He hates private-sector Americans succeeeding, w/o the government sticking its nose in it….Indirectly and directly, Obama is a F*#k up. Until you can admit that, you will look like a Dumb@$$…trying to explain the Bull-$#!t that’s going on because of Obama…
Don’t feel bad Sears: Obama has also destroyed:
1- The sanctity of legitimate marriage
2- our defense against Terrorists.
3- affordable energy
4- affordable and adequate healthcare
5- free enterprise.
6- our identity as a Christian, moral nation.
7- respect for political differences.
8- toleration of white people.
9 toleration for moral people.
10- the right to privacy.
11- Confidence the president cares about telling the truth.
12- respect for the people who work and build this country.
13- respect for work instead of a handout.
14- the knowledge that communism is a failure.
15- the lesson that god-haters eventually fail.
16- freedom of expression.
17- the US Constitution.
18- common sense regarding the environment.
19- home values.
20- the coal industry.
You are a goddamn fool.
And don’t yall just hate me…LMAO…Hahahahahahahaha…
Who would bother to hate someone so irrelevant and behind the times?
And Obama is WITH the times????…you might want to update your Dumb@$$ insurance….
I do not recall having said anything about Obama. It was you to whom I referred.
You forgot 2 ten year wars, that did not produce anything other than billions spent, and thousands of lives lost.
You left out the Titanic hitting the iceberg.
Why don’t you just go back to the ’50’s were you belong. The 1850’s that is.
As absurd as your list is, number 7, coming from YOU of all people, is pure hypocrisy.
This is only part of the story. Read how the Ayn Rand worshipping libertarian Sears CEO Eddie Lampert drove that company into the ground…
http://www.alternet.org/economy/eddie-lampert-and-ayn-rand
One hears that the Citadel Mall K-Mart subsidiary in Chucktown will follow it’s Harbison kin later this year…
What is this “sears” you speak of?