Sears and Kmart closings

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

My husband has worked for Sears for the past 9 1/2 years. He's in management and isn't surpised at all the closings. Over the past three years there's been a lot of changes in upper management and restructuring of policies to keep the stores making a decent profit. They are failing, what sucks about it is they put the pressure of lower management to make it all better. The real problem is the company just has not kept up with the times, and they have stupid advertisers, and they do not care to invest in good sales assciates, they pay really poorly.

Sears fiscal year ends January, so to save face and look like their profits are not as bad as they really are, this brilliant company has decided to cut hourly employee hours to save money. This is them slicing their own throat!!! No sales staff means unhappy customers. Soon Sears will be gone. They'd have to get a Steve Jobs miracle to save this company.

 

[SillyChicken]

I used to shop kmart all the time.. and I think I boycotted them because they caved to the anti gun crowd, never been in one since. I won't be surprised if this store closes cause the lot always looks empty, and the store looks like crap.
I will go to sears on occassion. Our Sears store is pretty clean and people are friendly and always busy. The biggest complaints I have is the store layout and very little stock in things like TVs etc. I was going to get a TV from them but I had to wait a few days and come back to pick it up...it was when gas was 4.00 a gallon and I wasn't about to make another trip into town when I could go to best buy at the other end of the mall and take one home that day.

 

[Grand-hen-ma]

I have a Kmart right next door to a super Walmart, (open 24 hrs) I honestly don't know how Kmart stays open. There are never more than a dozen cars in the parking lot and usually no more than 6 associates in the entire store. The few times I went in to Kmart I could only find 1 cashier and 1 person at the customer service desk. I find their prices to be high and the quality of their merchandise very cheap and junky. There was so much dust on everything too. Oh and the lady at the jewelry counter had so much makeup on that she looked like a hideious clown.

 

[EweSheep]

Our Kmart used to be very popular back in the 70s and early 80s, always a good sized parking lot. Now it is only at least a doz cars there at a given time. Employees are scarce and one person on the desk and one or two cashiers.

I agree the products were elcheapo. Sometimes the prices are so overpriced that it would drive the customers away. I've noticed that they are doing alot of ads on Sundays, too much of it and I often wonder if they are trying so hard going broke by paying for ads like that.

Our super WalMart and Target stores have been doing pretty well.

 

[leonphelps]

lets be honest, in business you will never last unless you own the bricks. where I live, both companies have been renters in large strip malls for an eternity (20+ years). the only person who is really prospering is the real estate trust that owns the strip malls, namely a ***.

it seems the older I get them more that business experts are incompetent. I marvel how businesses last so long with messed up policies. Sure Wal-Mart can exploit Chinese labor, but in reality the selling cheaper business model rarely works. In the end, when the model goes south then the real travesties begin.


If people knew how corrupt the management of kmart is/was you would be amazed. I know some large stock holders that would get business from kmart and they would overcharge the company. Kind of like the Joe Dirt phrase, win/win for them.

 

[country lady]

I haven't shopped at Kmart in years because there is only one 50 miles away. It is located away from other stores, too.

At the summer sale, I picked up great bargains--maybe that's why they are closing stores.

The last week of the sale I bought the cutest outfits for my little granddaughter for .99, yes, 99 cents. I hate the current styles in shoes, IMO, very ugly and some even dangerous to wear but I found exactly the style I wanted for $29.95, 2nd pair for half that. They are Thom McCann's and real leather. I wanted to buy American made but good luck!

I plan to go back for the winter clothes sale--timing is everything--and buy the grandkids clothes for next Christmas. I had a full bag of beautiful clothes for my granddaughter--her summer clothes for 2012. I left the tags on so my DIL could see that they were not cheap junk. Greed set in and I went back the next week and all the summer clothes had been packed up and returned to the manufacturers.

I showed these little outfits to a friend whose daughter wouldn't be caught dead in the childrens' department at Walmart or any discount store and my friend thought they were adorable. Fortunately, my DIL is not a snob and recycles clothes through her church sale and resale stores.

This Kmart is across town and we went there because DH couldn't find the pants that he wanted--lo and behold, we found this sale by accident. True, Kmart doesn't have the store image that Walmart has but it is like Kroger--if I can't find something, I go to Kroger and there it is. Walmart can be ruthless. They carry only what sells quickly. Remember their "Made in America" advertising when Sam Walton was alive? Now it is a "China" store--has to be to compete. I shop weekly at Walmart but I have a love/hate feeling about it.

 

[Sharisr32]

I made my last purchase at Sears or Kmart 4 years ago and would not even accept free stuff from them - Not sorry to see them close at all the service is horrible - always some kind of rip off involved or just plain bad quailty ..

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

Lil Red CV - your sign photo is provocative. I totally agree with the made-in-China argument, but anti-union as a justification for the mess we're in? Thanks to the unions, Detroit is a ghost town! JMO, of course.

 

[chickened]

When I was a kid my mother would buy us kids' shoes at Kmart. They were known as "kmart fall a parts".

 

[Carols Clucks]

I was chatting with a nice clear at HD, she said she had picked up a part time second job at Kmart for some extra Christmas pay, also as a cashier. Her third week she came in and could not find her name on the schedule....they had decided to promote her to supervisor. With out even asking if she was interested. She told me she gave notice right then.

Just an example of what is wrong there.