When you think of “Lands’ End,” you probably don’t think “high fashion.” Yet the brand has hired Federica Marchionni, the president of Dolce & Gabbana USA, to be the company’s new CEO. Will Marchionni be able to turn Lands’ End into a global luxury brand and help it find a more profitable identity after breaking off its 13-year relationship with Sears? [More]
sears holdings
Sears Holdings Admits Plans To Close 105 More Stores, Won’t Say Which Ones
By 12.5.14
Last week, we shared an updated version of a list naming 109 Kmart and Sears stores reported by employees or local media outlets to be closing by early 2015. While Sears still won’t confirm or deny these reports on a company-wide level, the company did tell investors as part of its quarterly earnings report this week that it plans to close 105 more stores by the beginning of next year. [More]
Report: 109 Sears And Kmart Stores Now Expected To Close By Early 2015
By 11.24.14
There’s more cost-cutting planned at Sears Holdings through the end of this year and the beginning of next year. That news shouldn’t surprise anyone, but the total has increased to 39 Sears stores, and 70 Kmart stores, along with one Sears distribution center, one Kmart distribution center, and three Sears repair centers. [More]
Employee’s Daughter Asks Kmart To Give Mom Some Time Off On Thanksgiving
By 11.14.14
Should stores be open on Thanksgiving Day? Some businesses, such as hotels, gas stations, airlines, and even restaurants must be open to keep civilization running and make sure other people can get to their destinations and enjoy their holidays. Yet many non-essential businesses are open. Like Kmart. The child of one Kmart employee is unhappy about this, and wants the store to consider maybe giving her mom, a 21-year employee, the day off. [More]
Sears Holdings Ponders Forming A Real Estate Trust, Selling Stores To It
By 11.7.14
Two things are true about Sears Holdings: the company owns a lot of stores, and those stores are not selling enough merchandise. In order to raise some cash, in the last year the company has spun off its best quality clothing brand, sold shares in its Canadian subsidiary, borrowed money from its CEO, and taken on some roommates. What’s next? Selling some of its stores and leasing them back. [More]
Kmart Will Open At 6 A.M. On Thanksgiving, Stay Open 42 Hours Straight
By 11.3.14
This year, Kmart is sticking with its dubious tradition and opening on Thanksgiving Day. Like last year, they’re opening at 6 A.M., and will keep the doors open for 42 consecutive hours until midnight on Saturday. Maybe if they keep the doors open for that long, someone will wander in. [More]
Kmart And Sears Closing List Keeps Growing, Now Includes Distribution And Repair Centers
By 10.27.14
When representatives of Sears Holdings argued that a recent national store closings list compiled by financial information site Seeking Alpha was inaccurate, maybe what they meant was that the list was incomplete. Since then, the list has grown. Depending on whether you choose to count Sears and Sears Auto stores closing at the same time as separate units or not, either 99 or 131 stores will close, in addition to a Nevada distribution center and an Ohio repair facility. [More]
Sears Says Reports Of Planned Store Closings Are Wrong, Won’t Elaborate
By 10.23.14
Sears Holdings wants you to know that the rumors of planned store closings by the end of this year are wrong. After a report earlier today put together information from local media reports about which Sears, Sears Auto, and Kmart locations are currently scheduled to close, Sears representatives reached out to major outlets like USA Today and the Chicago Tribune to explain that the reports were incorrect. [More]
Sears And Kmart Will Close 78 Stores By End Of 2014
By 10.23.14
Sears Holdings, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, needs to lose less money. Their current plan includes closing underperforming stores, renting out vacant space, and borrowing money from its manifesto-writing CEO. These are all very sensible things to do, but will they be enough to save Sears? [More]
Kmart Clarifies Layaway Rules For Closing Stores, No One Tells Kmart Employees
By 10.17.14
Earlier this week, we shared with you the complaint of some Kmart customers in Ohio who placed items on layaway before learning that the store they had visited was about to close. This affected their payoff date and payments, but a Sears Holdings representative contacted media outlets sharing this story and explained that this is not Kmart’s policy. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to tell people who work at this Kmart. [More]
Layaway Customer At Closing Ohio Kmart Told To Pay Up Before Store Closes
By 10.15.14
Kmart started its Christmas-themed advertising back at the beginning of September, with an ad promoting its layaway program. Only after the holiday layaway season kicked off, Kmart announced a fresh round of store closings. This included two stores in Ohio, which have told customers that they have to pay off their layaway accounts by November 1st. UPDATE: The deadline may indeed not be November 1st. [More]
Sears To Sell Sears Canada Stake To Raise More Cash
By 10.2.14
Sears Holdings Corporation, the company that runs Sears and Kmart, needs to raise some cash to get through the rest of the year. When a person needs cash, they look around the house for things to sell. Sears did that, and what it saw was Sears Canada. The company announced today that it will sell part of its 51% stake in the company to current Sears Canada shareholders. You’ll never guess who’s buying! [More]
Sears Continues Retail Death Spiral, Still Sells A Few Useful Things
By 8.21.14
For the ninth quarter in a row, Sears Holdings Corporation has lost money. Even as the company closes stores, rents out remaining stores, and tries desperate moves like opening early on Thanksgiving Day and making fun of itself in its own ads, the company continues to sell itself for parts in a sad retail death spiral. Yet is there anything that you should consider buying at Sears while it still exists? Are Americans who sneer at Sears missing out? Maybe. [More]
Pretty Much Every Sears And Kmart Store Is For Rent Right Now
By 6.29.14
Sears Holdings Corporation, the company that runs Sears and Kmart, has a problem. They have a lot of real estate, and not enough sales to keep all of that real estate busy. One solution is to close stores as they underperform or as their leases expire, which is what the company has been doing. Another solution? Rent out that space. For the right customer, virtually every Sears and Kmart store is up for grabs. [More]
Lands’ End Divorce From Sears Complete, But They’re Still Roommates
By 4.7.14
After twelve years together, Sears and Lands’ End have officially split. They’ve been through a lot together: Sears bought the former sailing gear retailer in 2002, before the formation of the sprawling disaster that is Sears Holdings. For a while at least, absolutely nothing will change for consumers. [More]
Sears’ Even Uglier Stepsister: Visiting A Series Of Incredibly Sad Kmarts
By 11.5.13
A few weeks ago, Brian Sozzi of Belus capital Advisors did something simple enough: he went to Sears, took a bunch of pictures, and posted them on the company blog. Apparently, no one on the Internet has been to a Sears since 1997, since the post was a huge hit. Now he’s done it again for Sears’ sibling store Kmart. [More]
10 Things We Learned This Week About Why Sears Is So Terrible
By 7.12.13 — Updated: 5.19.14
In our posts about Sears, we often observe that the company seems like an anti-capitalist prank, a retail giant that thrashes around aimlessly until the real estate market picks up. It turns out that we were kind of half right. Manifesto-writing Sears Holdings chairman Eddie Lampert has organized the company into battling units that compete with each other for a dwindling pile of money. [More]
Land’s End Can’t Redeem Shop Your Way Rewards, Doesn’t Care
By 12.17.12
Shop Your Way Rewards are one of the delightful selling points for continuing to shop at companies that are part of Sears Holdings Corporation, such as Sears, Kmart, and Land’s End. Hayden has accumulated a modest balance of these points, and wanted to spend them at Land’s end. The website won’t let him. He reported this problem to Land’s End, and no one at the company seems to care. At all. [More]
