After being refreshingly candid in its annual report, admitting that there is a lot of “doubt” about its ability to remain afloat in the long run, Sears Holdings is now doing an about-face, with its chief financial officer assigned to handle damage control. Get your “Sears Holdings Corporate Announcement Bingo card” ready. [More]
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Sears Holdings Admits: Yep, We’re Probably Doomed
By 3.22.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Like a chess player who realizes their only chance of not losing is a tornado that whisks the table away, Sears Holdings is now making it clear to investors that there’s a good chance the company won’t be around much longer. [More]
Sears CEO Tells Employees Things Look Great After Losing $2.2 Billion In 2016
By 3.9.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Years ago, Sears Holdings chairman Eddie Lampert came to our attention by publishing a 15-page manifesto about pretty much everything. Since then, Lampert has taken on the job of CEO, despite not having any experience in the retail business and having what at times seems like an active dislike of the retail business. He periodically issues mini-manifestos for employees and for the public about how everything is fine, and published another this morning. [More]
Sears’ Empty Sales Floors May Be Turning Customers Off
By 2.24.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
It should be pretty easy to tell a fully operational department store from one that it is closing down, but some Sears shoppers have found that their local store is not doing much to alleviate concerns about the company’s death spiral. [More]
Sears Lays Off 130 Corporate Employees, Still Hoping To Escape Death Spiral
By 2.23.17
Sears Holdings, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, had a pretty bad year in 2016. The duo of once-mighty retailers is now locked in a death spiral, selling its real estate, its own iconic brands, and closing stores to stay afloat. And now Sears Holdings is laying off 130 corporate employees. [More]
Sears Holdings Outlines New Plan To Escape Death Spiral
By 2.10.17
Everyone except chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert thinks that Sears Holdings is in an inescapable death spiral, as the company sells its brands and real estate and lays off employees. Today, the company outlined plans for the near future that are more of the same: selling more real estate, selling off more key Sears brands, and depending on the Shop Your Way rewards program and e-commerce when the customers it still has aren’t especially interested in either. [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]
Sears To Sell Craftsman Brand To Black & Decker For $900M
By 1.5.17
Sears isn’t just trying to stave off the grim reaper by closing stores and borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars from CEO Eddie Lampert twice in two weeks. The beleaguered retailer is selling off its iconic Craftsman brand to Stanley Black & Decker for $900 million. [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]
Giant Former Sears Store In Chicago To Become Apartments And Maybe A Liquor Store
By 1.4.17
Last year, the oldest operating Sears store, a now-windowless tan brick behemoth in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood closed. The local commercial real estate market had the same problem as Sears itself: what could be done with an enormous retail building that the marketplace no longer needs? A developer came forward with a plan to redevelop the currently dormant space into apartments and maybe a liquor store. [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]
Sears And Kmart Pretend To Run A Retail Business For Another Quarter
By 12.8.16
Sears Holdings, the company that owns Sears and Kmart, is focused on “restoring profitability,” but so far the only method that the massive department store chain has found to do that since 2012 is by selling its stores to an affiliated real estate investment trust. Sears has a lot more real estate to sell, and could keep this charade up for a while yet. Will it? [More]
Report: Suppliers Starting To Cut Sales To Sears And Kmart
By 11.9.16 — Updated: 5.25.17
Retailers’ shelves and warehouses are stocked up for the holiday season, but suppliers are reportedly holding back from the stores belonging to one company. Sears Holdings, the parent company of Sears and Kmart, reportedly is having shipments to its stores cut by suppliers, who don’t want to be stuck with the bill if the company files abruptly for bankruptcy protection. [More]
Sears Will Shrink 12 Stores To Make Space For More Tenants
By 11.3.16
One way that Sears Holdings has been raising cash recently has been to take advantage of its vast portfolio of retail real estate, selling store buildings to an affiliated real estate investment trust and using the proceeds to keep the rest of the company going. That’s how the chain even posted a profit last year for the first time since 2012. Now its new landlord, the trust, is asking Sears to shrink down its living space and take on some roommates. [More]
Other Tool Companies Interested In Buying Craftsman
By 10.4.16
The legend says that 89 years ago, the head of hardware at Sears Roebuck really liked the name Craftsman, and bought the trademark from an existing tool company for $500 ($6,921 in 2016 dollars). Today, parent company Sears Holdings is troubled and in need of a cash infusion, and has quietly solicited bids for Craftsman. It’s reportedly worth around $2 billion. [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]
