For quite some time, Sears has managed to stay afloat by selling off real estate and brands, closing stores, and borrowing huge piles of cash from its CEO, which is not exactly a plan for long-term sustainability. If that all weren’t grim enough, now comes news that raises even more doubt about the future of this once-great retailer. [More]
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Where Do Customers Go When Their Department Store Closes?
By 2.7.17
This year, more than 150 locations for Macy’s and Kmart will close their doors forever. When these stores shut down, where do their former customers take their business? [More]
Kmart Lays Off More Employees, Turns Sales Floor Into Big Pile Of Boxes
By 1.27.17
The apparent inescapable death spiral of Sears continued last week when the retailer laid off an unspecified number of full-time employees from its Kmart stores. [More]
7 Things We Learned About Sears Holdings’ Apparent Death Spiral
By 1.9.17
According to Eddie Lampert, CEO and Chairman of Sears Holdings, the company is in the middle of a “transformation” into a profitable enterprise that integrates online and offline retail. Yet everyone from former high-ranking executives to anyone who has ever set foot in a Kmart says the retailer is in an inescapable death spiral. [More]
Here Are All Of The Kmart, Sears, And Macy’s Stores Closing This Spring
By and 1.5.17
It’s shaping up to be quite a depressing spring for a few retailers, after Sears Holdings announced it would be shutting down 150 Kmart and Sears stores in the next few months, and Macy’s notifying customers that 68 stores would close. Here is the list of all the stores that will be turning off the lights for good, where they are, and when they’re closing. [More]
Sears And Kmart Announce 150 Store Closures, Including The First Kmart
By 1.5.17
Last week, we shared a list of Kmart and Sears stores that we were able to confirm would be closing this spring. The list just grew, reaching a total of 108 Kmart locations and 42 Sears locations that will begin their store-closing sales this week. [More]
Sears Borrows Another $500 Million From Its CEO Until It Can Sell More Stores
By 1.4.17
Sears Holdings, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, has lost billions of dollars in the last few years. The last time that it did turn a profit, it was because the company had just sold a few billion dollars’ worth of store buildings to its affiliated real estate investment trust. Now the company is borrowing some cash from its CEO in anticipation of raising more money the same way. [More]
Sears Holdings Announces Another Round Of Kmart And Sears Closings
By 12.29.16 — Updated: 1.5.17
There are two related pieces of news out of Sears Holdings this week. First, the company is closing another round of Kmart and Sears stores across the country. Second, it’s set to borrow at least another $200 million from its manifesto-writing CEO. [More]
From Cash Registers To Escalators To Shopping Carts: 11 Important Firsts In Bricks-And-Mortar Retail History
By 12.13.16
These days you can shop from the comfort your couch in your soft pants, ordering up a flat of cat food, paper towels, and a smartphone with one click. So it’s easy to forget that once upon a time shopping at retail stores wasn’t a necessary evil, but an “experience” that many of us actually enjoyed. [More]
Sears Tries Giving Away Rewards Points With Branded Credit Card
By 10.26.16
Sears Holdings, parent company of Kmart and Sears, is depending on the company’s Shop Your Way rewards program to save the company. It is a very nice rewards program, but is it enough to get customers to spend? Don’t most store cards come with special rewards or discounts? [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart Find MP3 Player That Users Hated Back In 2012
By 10.10.16
The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are a brave band of explorers who comb the nation’s big box stores for comically outdated, yet still overpriced, merchandise. This is mostly electronics, since they don’t age very well, and today we have two not-so-fine selections from Walmart and from Kmart. [More]
Sears Holdings CEO Blogs: Kmart Is Doing Just Fine, Thanks
By 10.3.16 — Updated: 11.10.16
Sears Holdings chairman, CEO, and chief manifesto-writer Eddie Lampert wants shoppers like you and writers like us to know something very important: Kmart is doing just fine. It has some stores that are profitable, and the retailer is continuing its turnaround plan and the “transformation” of its business into something with fewer stores and more online sales. [More]
Christmas Creep Season Kicks Off Nationwide
By 9.21.16
Every holiday has two seasons: its actual season, and its creep season. The latter is that time of year during which people complain that it’s too soon to be selling decorations, cards, costumes, or other items for that holiday. Even things that aren’t really holidays can creep up, like back-to-school season. Here are some Christmas Creep sightings from across the country, so you’ll know where to pick up an artificial evergreen in mid-September for future reference. [More]
At Least 24 More Kmart Stores To Close By End Of 2016
By 9.19.16
At the end of last week, employees at Kmart stores across the country received bad but not entirely unexpected news: their stores are closing by the end of 2016, and they will lose their jobs. We can confirm that dozens of locations in 11 states plan to close on or before Dec. 11, and will most likely add more locations to this list later today or later this week. [More]
Moody’s Is Kind Of Worried About Sears Holdings, Especially Kmart
By 9.14.16
While Sears Holdings keeps trudging along its alleged “path to profitability,” Moody’s Investors Service has some doubts about the retailer’s prospects, and has downgraded its liquidity rating. That means that its analysts are concerned about the ability of Sears Holdings to keep its doors open and merchandise on the shelves. [More]
Michigan Is Littered With Abandoned Kmarts, Which Is Actually Good For Retail
By 9.12.16
When a longtime retailer closes its doors, it can be a good thing for the area and for the local real estate market. Employees lose their jobs, and the remaining loyal shoppers lose their favorite store, but freeing up that real estate means that new and popular stores can renovate or tear down the buildings, replacing them with something that modern shoppers are interested in. [More]
Kmart Holds ‘Grand Re-Opening’ For Millennial-Focused Illinois Store
By 8.31.16
What do millennials––a generation loosely defined as “anyone younger than Consumerist’s senior staff”––want from the physical stores that they still visit? Discount chain Kmart hopes to solve that mystery, re-opening an existing store near its headquarters as a “revitalized and refreshed” concept store intended to attract younger shoppers. [More]
As Sales Continue To Drop, Sears Borrows $300 Million From Its Own CEO
By 8.25.16
As more shoppers go online — or turn to retailers that don’t feel like they’ve just given up — same-store sales at Sears and its corporate kin Kmart have continued to sink, leading the once-great department store chain to borrow $300 million from the hedge fund owned by none other than Sears Holdings CEO Eddie Lampert. [More]
