Sears' CEO Blames the Media for Company's Decline - But His Obsession With Wall Street Set It Up...

[MULTIZ321]

What is Sears stock trading for right now??? Thanks to Mr. Lampert.

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RICHARD

 

[Talent312]

And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I've traveled each and every highway
And more, much more than this
I did it my way

... right into Bankruptcy.
A case study in hubris and complacency.

 

[MULTIZ321]

Sears Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection, to Close 142 More Stores
By Charisse Jones and Nathan Bomey/ USA Today/ Money/ usatoday.com

"Sears Holdings, whose presence permeated American life for generations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Monday in a last-ditch attempt to avoid entombment in the graveyard of once-great retailers that failed to adapt to the digital age.

For Sears — which was the largest retailer in the nation before the rise of Walmart and, later, Amazon — bankruptcy marks the culmination of years of decline defined by store closures, sales declines, cost cuts and borrowing.

The company, which also owns discount retailer Kmart, has fallen into disrepair amid a perilous retail landscape in which customers increasingly shop online or seek out more-appealing alternatives......"

(Photo: Bebeto Matthews, AP)

Richard

 

[CalGalTraveler]

This was a long slow death caused by Eddie Lampert, the CEO. He approached the company as a Wall Streeter and was obsessed with leveraging the real estate and focusing on fancy financial maneuvers to enrich his stake instead of investing in his stores and personnel to grow sales and customers. Near the end, the stores were barren, merchandising and store experience was downright depressing.

The media controls none of these actions by Lampert. Perhaps, as stated previously, it was social media instead of traditional media, but the customer criticism was well deserved and derived from the actions of Sears management.

 

[MULTIZ321]

Sears and Kmart Go Bankrupt and the Companies Can Thank CEO Eddie Lampert For It
By Erik Sherman/ Lead/ Inc./ inc.com

"Being a savvy investor in the past doesn't make you qualified to run a company.

Sears filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy today. This has been a long time in the making and periodically predicted since at least 2014. The stock, pre-market on Monday, is at $0.35 per share. Third-quarter revenue was a $508 million loss with revenue down almost 26 percent year over year.

The company did reach a deal with lenders over the weekend that will allow it to keep stores open through the holidays, as the Wall Street Journal reported. Thousands of jobs are in jeopardy as 150 stores are expected to close immediately, with another 250 potentially on the chopping block. (As my Inc.com colleague Bill Murphy noted in his take on the doom of Sears and lack of innovation, the company had plans to lay off some retail workers two days before Christmas. What heart.)

In other words, the company is a complete mess. Chairman and now-former CEO Eddie Lampert is about as bad a CEO as you can get. In addition, the company has long lost its way, ignoring the need for innovation in the face of smart competitors.

Such a pity, because Julius Rosenwald, the man behind the explosive success of Sears, making it the combination of Walmart and Amazon in its day with stores and catalogs, understood opportunity -- and responsibility. (He worked with Booker T. Washington to establish 5,000 schools for African American children in the South.)

He also knew how having money didn't necessarily mean someone was smart. Here's a Rosenwald quote from an old newsreel:

"Most people are of the opinion that because a man has made a fortune, that
his opinions on any subject are valuable. Don't be fooled by believing that
because a man is rich that he is necessarily smart. There is amble proof to the
contrary. Most large fortunes are made by men of mediocre ability who
tumbled into a lucky opportunity and couldn't help but get rich."

Lampert is a case in point. He made a lot of money and then decided that he had the skills to run Sears and Kmart as properties of Sears Holding. But he didn't understand the business. Even more, he didn't know how to manage people and was more interested in what he could take from the company than what he could bring, as Hayley Peterson well reported in Business Insider early in 2017....."

CREDIT: Getty Images

CalgalTraveler - your analysis was spot on.



Richard

 

[am1]

Any reason why a company in this shape should not lay people off before Christmas? They need to cut costs among other things. When my kids were smaller we bought lots of clothes there. Mostly online as they almost ended up being free with all the discounts, points etc. Would have bought more but a lot of the clearance items would show available but then would not add to the cart. When wanting to buy online but pick up instore searches were limited to 50 miles. I wanted a larger search area. A few times items were shipped or picked up in store and were wrong size or dirty. In store it was 5 minutes or $5 coupon and online they just told us to keep the item and would send a new one. I doubt these issues caused the bankruptcy but could not have helped.

 

[dioxide45]

My wife ordered some stuff a few weeks ago from Sears.com. SHe had ordered a bunch of tools for her dad and had got a lot of ShopYourWay Rewards. After applying the rewards she got $45 of stuff for about $5. When the packages arrived, one of the items was completely missing. The box was all tore up, but not so much that the item would have fallen out. It could perhaps have been pulled out. It was a packages of Tide Pods. She called and spent forever on the phone talking to an offshore call center who said they couldn't ship the item that was missing but would refund instead, we are still waiting on the refund which we don't expect to ever get and won't waste the time again trying.

 

[pedro47]

The last Sears in the Tidewater VA area is located in Newport News, VA and that store will closed Dec. 31, 2018.

 

[Brett]

The last Sears in the Tidewater VA area is located in Newport News, VA and that store will closed Dec. 31, 2018.

and that store was in a closed mall
(except for picadilly and some call centers)

 

[pedro47]

and that store was in a closed mall
(except for picadilly and some call centers)

That mall is now a call center/tech bldg.
Sears own the parking spaces around their retail building. I hope Sears have some good sales during the next 2 1/2 months.

 

[dioxide45]

Liquidation sales are usually bogus IMO. A local retailer, Elder Beerman, went out of business earlier this year and had liquidation sales starting out at 40% off. Well, when they mark everything back up to full retail, the 40% discount is about what you would have paid while they were still in business offering sales and coupons. They actually hauled in merchandise to "liquidate", merchandise that they didn't otherwise sell before they started liquidation.

 

[MULTIZ321]

Sears Quietly Paid Rent on More Than 200 Shuttered Stores
By Lisa Fickenscher/ Business/ New York Post/ nypost.com

"They’re dark, they’re full of junk, they lose money — and they’re finally off the books.

Sears, which filed for bankruptcy on Monday, had quietly been paying rent on more than 200 Sears and Kmart locations that it had already shut down and abandoned, according to court documents reviewed by The Post.

That’s in addition to the 142 unprofitable stores that Sears said it will close by year’s end as it scrambles to avoid a liquidation that could end the company’s 125-year run as one of America’s most iconic companies.

Hedge-fund tycoon Eddie Lampert, who gave up his role as chief executive on Monday, is still looking to save 300 or so stores to operate beyond the holidays, out of about 700 that were operating as of Monday. The fate of another 250 or so stores will be determined early next year, sources said.

Meanwhile, according to court papers, Sears has handed over the keys and alarm codes to landlords for 217 already-shuttered properties on Monday.

“That’s an astounding number of stores,” said a restructuring expert, who did not want to be identified but who had expected the number of defunct stores to be between 50 and 75.....

.....
The dud locations mark an ironic end to Sears and Kmart under Lampert, who began his tenure by scooping Kmart out of bankruptcy in 2003 for $800 million, then quickly selling 70 Kmart locations to Sears and Home Depot for $900 million.

In 2015, Sears sold more than 200 Sears stores for $2.7 billion to Seritage Growth Properties, a REIT in which he is the majority shareholder."

Getty Images


Richard

 

[pedro47]

My Vanguard REIT mutual fund was doing pretty good for the past two (2) years. Well I am looking at hit in that fund this qtr.

 

[Fredflintstone]

Call me old. I’m gonna miss Sears. I remember their Christmas catalog. It was my go too to find out what I wanted from Santa.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[MULTIZ321]

Sears Chairman Eddie Lampert Offers to Buy Sears Out of Bankruptcy, Including 500 Stores
By Nathan Bomey/ USA Today/ Money/ usatoday.com

The chairman and largest investor in Sears Holdings is offering to buy the retailer out of bankruptcy — including 500 of its remaining stores — in what may amount to the chain's last hope to survive its precipitous decline.

Sears chairman and hedge fund investor Eddie Lampert, who was also CEO until the retailer's October bankruptcy filing, disclosed the offer Thursday.

"Sears is an iconic fixture in American retail and we continue to believe in the company’s immense potential to evolve and operate profitably as a going concern with a new capitalization and organizational structure," Lampert said in a letter.

"Our proposed business plan envisages significant strategic initiatives and investments in a rightsized network of large format and small retail stores, digital assets and interdependent operating businesses."

Lampert said the acquisition would keep 50,000 Sears employees working.

He said the deal would include 500 stores, which covers essentially all of the locations Sears has not identified for closure. The deal would include Sears and Kmart stores....."

(Photo: Sears Holdings)


Richard

 

[Talent312]

So, the same guy who brought Sears to its knees still thinks he can run a retail enterprise.
Talk about chutzpah. One day, if not now, this will be a textbook lesson in a business class.
.

 

[LisaH]

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results...

 

[pedro47]

Sears was an iconic retail fixture in the USA economy IMHO....It stood for quality made Products, tools, appliances, televisions, clothes, etc., Products made in the USA and quality services from all their employees. They were #1 in both areas.

No more. Greed and Poor management from the CEO and The Board. Have destroyed this Icon.
IMHO.

 

[MULTIZ321]

Sears Gets $4.4 Billion Bid to Buy Company Out of Bankruptcy By Lampert
By Dalvin Brown and Ziati Meyer, USA Today/ Money/ Des Moines Register/ desmoinesregister.com

"An affiliate of ESL Investments, the hedge fund controlled by Sears Holdings Chairman Eddie Lampert has offered to buy the owner of Kmart and Sears stores out of bankruptcy.

Transform Holdco LLC has submitted a bid for substantially all of the assets of Sears Holdings, including 425 stores, which it says is valued at $4.4 billion. The bid includes a $1.3 billion financing commitment from three financial institutions, according to an emailed statement. Transform said that if the bid is successful the company that emerges from bankruptcy would employ up to 50,000 people.

All bids to buy the company out of bankruptcy were due Friday at 4 p.m. ET. A bid doesn't guarantee that Sears would be saved. The company and its advisers must determine by Jan. 4 whether the bid is "qualified."

The bid came hours after Sears announced that it would close 80 more Sears and Kmart locations in late March. The long-embattled retailer, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, had already announced the closing of 143 locations by the end of the year and another 40 Sears and Kmart stores set to close in February 2019....."

(Photo: Reviewed.com)


The Lunacy Continues......


Richard

 

[pedro47]

Sears will never look or be the seen company after 100 plus years in business.
Another major retailer J C Penny stock closed under $1.00 per share this past Friday.

The retail business model must change in order for store front businesses to survive this decade lMHO.

Television home shopping networks, the internet and Amazon are killing store front retail businesses in the United States. IMHO.

 

[TravelTime]

This part of the article really irked me. I am so tired of rich powerful people claiming the world is unfair to them. Imagine how unfair the world is to other people without their money and power.

The man in charge of Sears, Edward S. Lampert, has blamed the company's decline on everything from shifts in consumer spending to the rise of e-commerce, and even — at times — the weather. More recently, he's taken to attacking the media, saying reports speculating on a Sears bankruptcy are thwarting his efforts to turn the business around.​

“Every time people use the word bankruptcy, somebody who reads that doesn't get past that word," he told the Chicago Tribune in a recent interview. "It makes it very unfair for us, and it's a very uneven playing field for us."
​

Frankly, I thought Sears and Kmart were out of business years ago. The last time I was in a Sears store, probably about 10-15 years ago, their merchandise was awful and overpriced. Forget Kmart. It is such a messy store. They can’t compete with Target. I think the CEO sounds delusional as to why his company is failing. It is definitely due to lack of business skills, IMO.

 

[Fredflintstone]

Sears will never look or be the seen company after 100 plus years in business.
Another major retailer J C Penny stock closed under $1.00 per share this past Friday.

The retail business model must change in order for store front businesses to survive this decade lMHO.

Television home shopping networks, the internet and Amazon are killing store front retail businesses in the United States. IMHO.

Yes, times have certainly changed and unfortunately the institutional department stores like Sears and JC Penny didn’t get with the times. If they would have started an online presence in the early 90s it would have been them who would be in Amazon status. Sometimes these old timber companies get to comfortable and think they are too big to fail.

It’s too bad, I enjoyed walking thru JC Penny and Sears especially around Christmas time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[pedro47]

An example of change. Please take a look at all major grocery stores. As a consumer now all you need to do: call in your grocery shopping lists, the grocery store shopping Person will do all your shopping for you, you only need to tell the retailer what time you will pick up you order and how you will pay. You only need to drive up to the loading area and the retailer will even load everything in your vehicle. No tipping.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Macy’s is next...


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[Talent312]

What will save brick & mortar stores...
My DW (and other women) who refuse to buy things they cannot see+touch.
... Kind'a like how I feel about buying lumber.

My favorite clothing stores: Those with a husband-chair and wi-fi.
.