damn_registrars's Journal: Sears Announces More Store Closings

Sears / KMart - which have been owned under the same corporate umbrella for years now - struggled yet again to make money through this holiday season. After obtaining another line of credit to stay afloat, they have announced the imminent closing of at least 32 stores between the two chains .

That means the retailer will have fewer than 1,500 stores left by early 2017. That's down nearly 60% from 2011, when Sears had more than 3,500 stores.

...

In the most recent quarter, Sears' revenue fell 13%, to $5 billion, and its losses widened to $748 million from $454 million in the period last year.

Same-store sales dropped 7.4%, including a 10% decrease at Sears stores and a 4.4% decrease at Kmart stores.

Why go to Sears?

[BarbaraHudson]

For anything that Sears carries, there's a big-box chain that specializes in it, whether it's home electronics, appliances, beds, clothes, etc., with more selection and better prices (and given the closings in the last few years, easier to find as well).

As for KMart - all their local stores were taken over by Walmart and expanded.

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[damn_registrars]

KMart is indeed a dead duck. They have a few interesting pieces of property that Lampert is likely hoping to cash in on by selling at more opportune moments. It's really hard to imagine why anyone would intentionally shop there, particularly when most people have Target, WalMart, or other similar retailers nearby that are better in nearly every conceivable metric. I thought it was interesting that KMart was running radio ads in my area for the holiday shopping season after having closed almost every stor

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[BarbaraHudson]

Kenmore is a dead brand, thanks to lousy after-sales warranty service over the last decade or two, and low quality control. Craftsman power tools? It's now seen as on the same level as Wack & Pecker. The Craftsman, Kenmore, and DieHard brands are up for sale [bloomberg.com] - who knows what's happening to them?

Too bad, because the lifetime warranty on hand tools such as socket sets and wrenches was decent. Fortunately, there are other retailers here that offer the same guarantees, without even a proof of purchase.

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[damn_registrars]

You beat the news by a day; the sale of Craftsman to Stanley Black & Decker was announced this morning [usatoday.com].

The Stanley Black & Decker company owns quite a few things now beyond the obvious. They also own DeWalt (which is probably why the big box home improvement stores are flooded with Chinese-made DeWalt branded hand tools), Kwikset locks, Price Pfister faucets, and a variety of other things as well (wikipedia has a pretty good list of it [wikipedia.org]). Perhaps if the US government cared about monopolization

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[BarbaraHudson]

DeWalt, Porter-Cable, all sh*te that you won't find in a tool-rental store that caters to the trades, and that you wouldn't find in a real job box. Unfortunately, even brands that used to be solid, you have to be careful now. The trend is to buy a brand, lower the quality, and milk it for extra profits until it becomes obvious, then create or buy another brand, rinse, lather, repeat.

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[damn_registrars]

I don't recall now if DeWalt is copying this strategy faithfully or not, but I have noticed that Milwaukee has (at least) two completely distinct lines of power tools - both of which are sold as Milwaukee. They have the cheap tools that are sold at the usual home improvement stores, and then they have the more powerful, expensive, and durable tools that are sold through other channels. I was in an actual tool store (that sells to tradespeople) recently and the difference was night and day between their Mi