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Sears Files Bankruptcy

T

TheBigA

Today Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It's the same form of bankruptcy filed by Cumulus and iHeart. That means re-organization.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...business&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

There likely will be more store closings and employee layoffs. But the company will continue to operate.

For many years, Sears was a regular advertiser in radio, TV, and newspaper. Not lately.

Just another example of how the collapse of traditional retail is hurting ad-supported media.
 
One of my morning show hosts made the comment that "In its day, Sears was the Amazon of its time". Absolutely true. I have a 1912 mail order catalog from Sears and you could order virtually anything and everything available on the market from it. Even cars, all manner of farm equipment, hobbies and kit stick-built houses. The only thing I didn't see was free shipping.
 
I was thinking the same thing.

In recent years, I have bought many clothes and appliances at Sears. The shirts aren't like I want these days so I go to Penney's but pants are cheap when on sale and they have the kind I want.

I got a Sears MasterCard several years ago when I got a discount for doing that. I still get points I can use in Sears or KMart. There's not a lot I buy at KMart and all of the ones near me have closed. But I pay my credit card bill in person and that has become less convenient.
 
I agree. The brick & mortar model is killing retail. Same with Montgomery Ward. And now Amazon is trying to use their Whole Foods stores as their brick & mortar outlets. Bad idea. Then again, the only thing I buy in person is food. Everything else is online. I recently bought my car that way. I bought my house using the MLS website. At one time, I could have bought a house from the Sears catalogue. What's old is new again.
 
TheBigA said:
I agree. The brick & mortar model is killing retail. Same with Montgomery Ward. And now Amazon is trying to use their Whole Foods stores as their brick & mortar outlets. Bad idea. Then again, the only thing I buy in person is food. Everything else is online. I recently bought my car that way. I bought my house using the MLS website. At one time, I could have bought a house from the Sears catalogue. What's old is new again.
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I think 1942 was the last time you could have ordered a Sears House in the mail, just how old are you? Did you buy your new car @ Carvana? How do they stick New cars in those giant Vending Machines?
 
FreddyE1977 said:
He bought his house from the MLS website, not at Sears.

There are a few old Sears homes from the 1920's and 30's scattered about my neighborhood.
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Yes i must have glanced over that, thanks! Still would like to know if the Car came from a vending machine though?
 
Hot Hits said:
I think 1942 was the last time you could have ordered a Sears House in the mail, just how old are you? Did you buy your new car @ Carvana? How do they stick New cars in those giant Vending Machines?
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The local realty association runs a non-profit multiple listing site. It's been in use for about ten years. For the car, I used Cars.com.
 
I had a summer job at a Sears warehouse back in the Seventies. I remember the old guys there talking about when cars would come in on the boxcars. They'd get 3 to a boxcar. The brand of the car was Allstate. Never saw one though.
They paid us in ca$h which I thought was weird. I think we were all "under the table" employees.
 
One thing I can say for sure: it will never again be a major national advertiser.

After the 142 closures conclude, the Kmart brand will have no presence in several major markets, like Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, St. Louis and Atlanta. Along with a bunch of large and middle markets, particularly across the Midwest and Great Plains. With Kmart being left with 282 stores nationwide, that probably isn't a big surprise. And about 25 of those stores are outside the mainland US, including Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam.

The Sears brand will be left with about 340 stores nationwide. It will be absent from a handful of large-ish markets, like Portland, Ore., Indianapolis and Des Moines. Maybe it would make sense to buy niche cable for the Sears brand, but probably not.

Sears/Kmart probably should have rallied around one of its brands to make its advertising more efficient. But executives 10 years ago, when the company had some cash, probably never imagined the chain would shrink to just 500 combined stores.
 
One of the things driving the Sears bankruptcy (and it's similar to what drive the auto companies into bankruptcy) is the company pension plan.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-sears-bankruptcy-pension-default-20181011-story.html

Sears has a ton of retired employees, and there are more retired people than there are current workers. The fear, according to this article, is that those retired people may lose their pension. Think about that for a minute. Sure it's bad a lot of people will lose their jobs, and a lot of neighborhoods will lose their stores. But imagine you're over 70 and you lose your pension. Fortunately the government insures the pension plan. But the government has a big debt too. And the dominoes continue to fall, as they did in 2008.
 
TheBigA said:
Huh? Not sure what you mean. It's not a Sears home. All homes for sale in the region are on the site.
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Freddy said you had a Sears home, or your post made it sound like you got an old Sears home from a MLS search or possibly could have got one at one time. So I'm not sure what we are talking about. How's the Car?
 
Hot Hits said:
Freddy said you had a Sears home, or your post made it sound like you got an old Sears home from a MLS search or possibly could have got one at one time. So I'm not sure what we are talking about. How's the Car?
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Maybe you should re-read my post. My point was I do all my shopping (except for food) online. I don't use brick & mortar stores. My car is a very conventional car that I picked up and paid for at a dealer, but I found it by an online search using Cars.com. It saved me a ton of time and aggravation. Have you ever used eBay? You can buy cars there too. The car is the same car you would buy anywhere else. There's a big world out there.
 
Sears may have filed for Chapter 11, but they've discounted it to $9.99
 
Somehow, Sears, despite faltering nationwide, managed to hang on to their store at the old Bellevue Center in west Nashville until around 2015, becoming (in the process) the LAST store at that mall, the rest of which had been closed since about 2008. Somewhat surprisingly, they kept this store, while closing their location at the bustling Cool Springs Galleria in 2014. Sears was apparently the last holdout in the redevelopment of the Bellevue Center property.

And I got my house on realtor.com. Highly recommended!
 
TheBigA said:
My car is a very conventional car that I picked up and paid for at a dealer, but I found it by an online search using Cars.com. It saved me a ton of time and aggravation. Have you ever used eBay? You can buy cars there too. The car is the same car you would buy anywhere else.
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Not exactly. Buying a car online, sight unseen, is a very risky transaction. Buying from a business can be as well but at least you have some protection from misrepresentation and hidden problems if you use a reputable business. Buying from an individual, even eBay, gives you no significant protection. While the availability of specialized vehicles, especially Classic vehicles, is much better on sites like eBay you still need to use plenty of caution when purchasing. Online buying is definitely not a panacea except perhaps for packaged, relatively inexpensive products.
 
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