SEARS Closing 78 Additional Stores; Must be Obama's Terrific Economy?

[mick silver]

SEARS Closing 78 Additional Stores; Must be Obama's Terrific Economy? Post by Newsroom (https://www.superstation95.com/index.php/world/author/973-newsroom) - Apr 21, 2016





https://cdn.superstation95.com/media/k2/items/cache/dbe2064f7b08a4acf308a99bd5078f1b_XL.jpg?1461280817


When President Barrack Obama said the economy was doing fine and anyone saying otherwise was "peddling fiction" he apparently didn't tell SEARS.
The following are Sears and Kmart stores that will be closing, according to a statement Thursday from the department stores' parent company, Sears Holdings (SHLD (http://www.usatoday.com/money/lookup/stocks/shld/)).
Closing Sears stores start their liquidation sales April 29 and the closing Kmarts start their liquidation sales May 12. The stores will close in late July, except those marked with an asterisk (*), which close in mid-September.










Alabama
Sears / 700 Quintard Dr., Oxford
Kmart / 5980 Chalkville Mountain, Birmingham, AL
Kmart / 1101 Beltline Road, Decatur AL
Kmart / 230 Green Springs Hwy, Homewood
Kmart / 450 Z Schillingers Road, Mobile
Arizona
Kmart / 300 West Mariposa Road, Nogales
Arkansas
Sears / 600 S University Ave., Little Rock
California
Kmart / 2270 East El Monte Way, Dinuba
Kmart / 520 S Cherokee Lane, Lodi
Kmart / 1475 Hillman Street, Tulare
Kmart / 2785 Highway 46, Wasco
Connecticut
Kmart / 44 Providence Pike, Putnam
Florida
Sears / 9501 Arlington Expy., Jacksonville
Kmart / 9600 San Jose Blvd., Jacksonville
Kmart / 500 Atlantic Blvd, Neptune Beach
Kmart / 1809 Byron Butler Parkway, Perry
Illinois
Kmart / 7050 S Pulaski, Chicago
Kmart / 2721 N Vermillion Street, Danville
Kmart / 1150 W Carl Sandburg Dr., Galesburg
Kmart / 17355 Torrence Ave., Lansing
Kmart / 2909 Court St., Pekin
Kmart / 3840 46th Ave, Rock Island
Indiana
Kmart / 3216 E Third Street, Bloomington
Kmart / 3525 Grantline Rd., New Albany
Kansas
Kmart / 1320 E 30th Ave., Hutchinson
Kentucky
Kmart / 1809 N Dixie Hwy., Elizabethtown
Kmart / 4025 Poplar Level Rd., Louisville
Kmart / 3911 Taylorsville Rd., Louisville
Kmart / 1581 US 68 South, Maysville
Kmart / 344 North Mayo Trail, Paintsville
Louisiana
Sears / 5953 W Park Ave., Houma
Kmart / 2985 Cottingham Expwy., Pineville
Massachussetts
Kmart / 10 Main Street, Tewksbury
Michigan
Sears / 6810 Eastman Ave., Midland
Kmart / 8171 W Houghton Lake Dr., Houghton Lake
Super K* / 21111 Van Born Rd., Taylor
Missouri
Kmart / 11978 St Charles Rock Rd., Bridgeton
Kmart / 1930 E Kearney Street, Springfield
Mississippi
Kmart / 118 Highway 72 West, Corinth
Montana
Kmart / 2424 Central Ave., Billings
North Carolina
Kmart / 804 N Broad Street, Brevard
Kmart / 3580 East Franklin, Gastonia
Kmart / 2750 Roberts Avenue, Lumberton
Kmart / 10500 Centrum Parkway, Pineville
Kmart / 720 Sutter Creek Blvd., Rocky Mount
Nebraska
Kmart / 3001 West 12th, Hastings
New York
Sears / 200 Medley Centre Parkway, Irondequoit
Sears / 60 Smithfield Blvd, Plattsburgh
Kmart / 838 South Road, Poughkeepsie
Kmart / 3049 W. Ridge Rd., Rochester
Ohio
Sears / 1377 Marion Waldo Rd., Marion
Super K / 3315 N Ridge E., Ashtabula
Kmart / 1705 North Barron Street, Eaton
Kmart / 1825 North State Route 19, Fremont
Kmart / 2250 Harding Hwy., Lima
Super K* / 5350 Leavitt Road, Lorain
Kmart / 625 West Central Avenue, Springboro
Pennsylvania
Sears / 101 Clearview Cir., Butler
Sears / 2500 W State St., New Castle
Kmart / 2660 Constitution Blvd., Beaver Falls
Kmart / 8800 Frankford Ave., Philadelphia
Kmart /3000 McIntyre Square Dr., Pittsburgh
Kmart / 1775 S Braddock Avenue, Pittsburgh
Kmart / 3045 Fifth Street Hwy., Reading
Kmart / 99 Matthews Drive, Uniontown
South Carolina
Kmart / 2209 West Dekalb, Camden
South Dakota
Kmart / 1000 18th St SW, Huron
Kmart / 2210 Broadway Avenue, Yankton
Tennessee
Kmart / 1802 Decatur Pike, Athens
Kmart / 945 McCammon Ave., Maryville
Kmart / 902 S. Main Street, Sweetwater
Texas
Kmart / 11330 Montwood Dr., El Paso
Kmart / 1405 East Expressway 83, Mission
Kmart / 210 SE Georgia Ave., Sweetwater
Utah
Kmart / 1055 East Draper Pkwy., Draper
Kmart / 610 West Price River Dr., Price
Kmart / 1442 W 90th South, West Jordan
Wisconisn
Kmart / 1275 Bell Avenue, Hartford

[cheka.]

remember when kmart bought sears....cramer on cnbc pounding the table to buy -- saying the criminal running the thing is a special genius. since then it's been an epic grinding collapse

[Cebu_4_2]

remember when kmart bought sears....cramer on cnbc pounding the table to buy -- saying the criminal running the thing is a special genius. since then it's been an epic grinding collapse

I thought Sears bought Kmart? I had Kmart stock that just vaporized...

[cheka.]

I thought Sears bought Kmart? I had Kmart stock that just vaporized...

kmart went bk. cramer's buddy bought the kmart carcass. kmart then bought sears and changed its name to sears.

[Cebu_4_2]

kmart went bk. cramer's buddy bought the kmart carcass. kmart then bought sears and changed its name to sears.


Hmm... we have a store close thats named Kmart.

[cheka.]

Hmm... we have a store close thats named Kmart.

yes, kmart 2.0 (3.0?) owns and operates both brands

kmart 2.0 changed its name to sears after buying it

[milehi]

The list of stores closing are in complete shitholes

[cheka.]

The list of stores closing are in complete shitholes

surprised they missed the sears corpse in my area....place is dead, but still open. that says a lot about the ones they DID close...egad

[Cebu_4_2]

yes, kmart 2.0 (3.0?) owns and operates both brands

kmart 2.0 changed its name to sears after buying it


So where did my stock go?

[Down1]

Kmart is in trouble.

Sears might or might not be able to make still.

[Ponce]

None in Oregon?....holy macro, this is a broken state and they will stay open?....we don't even have state tax.

V

[palani]

During the Iraq war (don't remember which) they announced all KMarts and Sears would be closing there and re-opening in the Target name.

[Cebu_4_2]

During the Iraq war (don't remember which) they announced all KMarts and Sears would be closing there and re-opening in the Target name.

I found Target to be a very clean Walmart. Penneys more than Walmart but had helpful employees and the same stuff. I wish there were more Targets because I don't like what Walmart has become. 50 miles to the nearest Target but 6 to Walmart...

[palani]

I found Target to be a very clean Walmart. Penneys more than Walmart but had helpful employees and the same stuff. I wish there were more Targets because I don't like what Walmart has become. 50 miles to the nearest Target but 6 to Walmart...
I find Target asiago cheese bagels from Einstein to be too addictive. Hard to break the habit. Although not all stores make them the same.

But I meant Target as in MILITARY target




https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/25_Meter_Precision_and_50_Meter_Pistol_Target.svg

[cheka.]

So where did my stock go?

vaporized in the bk

[cheka.]

http://www.businessinsider.com/sears-workers-reveal-bad-workplace-2016-8

Sears is bleeding cash.

The company's cash and equivalents have fallen to $276 million from $1.8 billion a year ago, Sears said Thursday.

The company's sales have been falling for years and it has been shutting down stores, selling real estate, and spinning off brands to stem the bleeding.

Since 2007, Sears has closed half of its locations — which include Sears and Kmart stores — and eliminated more than 137,000 jobs.

Some employees have predicted that the rest of the company's physical stores will close within the next two years.

The stores are severely understaffed, with some operating on less than half of the employees they need, according to workers who spoke to Business Insider.

Not only are the stores firing people, but they are also cutting labor hours for the workers that remain, according to the employees. In some cases, stores are operating with just one or two cashiers and sometimes no cashiers at all, they said.

That's making it increasingly difficult to hire and retain experienced workers, according to a former Kmart employee of 41 years, who said that she was laid off in February. She told Business Insider that her store's employees hadn't seen raises in eight years.

She blames the company's CEO, Eddie Lampert, for the company's downfall.

"Lampert has taken this company and, with pompous arrogance, has destroyed it," she said. "Customer care is vital to a retail business. Lampert just couldn't understand that."

IMG_7095.JPGSears

Workers also said that the stores are suffering structurally from a lack of investment.

An employee who currently works for a Sears in Ohio said that his store is rife with issues, from broken walls and escalators to frequent roof leaks. He said that the merchandise on the floor is often torn open, and no one will buy those items.

A former assistant manager of Kmart who left the company in 2012 after 12 years said that the company really started going downhill after the introduction of Shop Your Way, a loyalty program that Sears introduced in 2009.

The program, which allows customers to earn points for purchases, was confusing and poorly executed, killed profits, slowed down customer service, and featured targeted advertising that was completely off base, the former manager said.

He said:

"Items scanned per minute decreased from 18 to five items per minute because the program was littered with exclusions and confusion. Several items didn't ring as advertised or generate the points as expected. This resulted in long lines and angry customers. Abandoned carts meant utilizing payroll to return those items back to stock."

IMG_7079.JPGSears

He said that he and his family shopped at Walmart instead of Sears or Kmart to avoid the confusion of Shop Your Way.

"Imagine trying to keep an eye on two children and trying to understand a confusing SYWR [Shop Your Way] offer," he said. "We opted to avoid the confusion and shop Walmart — where the tag or the sign told us what we would pay. No gimmicks."

The 41-year employee of Kmart who spoke to Business Insider had similar complaints about Shop Your Way.

She said:

"[Eddie Lampert's] ideas of reward cards to transform the company were a waste of time and money. If they didn't have a card, you were supposed to enroll them while you have 10 waiting in that one line to check out. Most people were so disgusted when they finally got to pay, they didn't want to apply. They just wanted to pay and go."

In response to the employee complaints, Sears spokesman Howard Riefs said that the company encourages workers to provide feedback.

"One of our cultural beliefs as a company is to embrace feedback," Riefs said. "We have a variety of ways that associates can give authentic feedback — even anonymously — and would encourage them to do so."

He also directed Business Insider to a Sears blog post published last year in which employees shared why they are proud to work for Sears and Kmart.

"I am very proud to be part of SHC [Sears Holding Co.]," said Jen Chamberlain, a Sears sales associate in Victor, New York. "From online and in-store shopping to home and car repair services integrating with Shop Your Way, it is truly a high standard of operation for any company."

Scott Ogden, an associate store manager in Miami, Florida, said, "I am proud to be part of the SHC team because we all work together on a daily basis to achieve the same common goals. SHC is comprised of great leaders and team members who strive every day to deliver their best results."

In addition to speaking with employees, Business Insider also reviewed a message board that workers said they use to communicate with Sears and Kmart employees at other stores.

In dozens of messages over the last several weeks, people claiming to work for Sears and Kmart complained about the stores' deterioration.

Several people claimed that the quality of the products that Sears and Kmart sell has declined and that no one will buy clearance items regardless of how much they mark down the prices.

IMG_7090.JPGSears

"Clearance is the standard operating procedure at our store," one person wrote on the message board. "We have at least half of our store on clearance. Too much stuff people don't want ... and what they do buy they will usually return as defective. ... Not long until the end, it will come soon."

Another person claiming to work in Sears' automotive section wrote:

"Lately the majority of tire shipments consist of Patriot and Radar tires. These are simply cheap crappy tires. We have about 12 sets of Michelin tires left and a handful of Goodyear. Even shipments of their signature RoadHandler tires have slowed down. It's embarrassing when I have to face a customer and explain I just don't have much product to offer."

One person said that the stores have deteriorated so much that it's like caring for a "dead body."

"Our motto now is 'you can only do what you can do,'" the person wrote. "It's sad to watch what we worked for with pride for so many years to be slain in front of us and then we still have to care for the dead body."

IMG_7103.JPGSears

Some stores are being inundated by shipments of merchandise several times a week, and they don't have enough employees to move the products from the trucks to the stock rooms, and then to store shelves in a timely manner.

"We have been getting shipments of things that we don't need — it seems like they are just trying to empty out of the warehouses," one person wrote.

The understaffing appears to be a major issue for many stores.

"My store is down to a skeleton staff," one person wrote.

Another said that they have a 17-year-old in a managerial position.

They wrote:

"With new hires only lasting less than a month, experienced employees quitting for better paying and better working conditions we have hardly anyone with any experience to run the store. The worst is that we have a 17-year-old running the office and cash office. He has no experience in either but he is a warm body to fill the job. The end is coming soon, get out while you can."

If you work in retail and have a story to tell, then send an email to retail@businessinsider.com.
SEE ALSO: Sears' obsession with Wall Street is killing the retailer for good
NOW WATCH: Find out if you live near one of the Sears or Kmart stores closing this year
More: Retail Sears Kmart

facebook
linkedin
twitter
email
print

Comments
Comments on this post are now closed.

Insiders 5
All Comments 137

Show non-Insider comments earlier in this conversation
40
3
Winston Smith on Aug 28, 4:04 AM said:
Six months max. Probably the only reason they're still in business is that competition from Amazon has created a glut of brick-and-mortar retail space, making it harder for Eddie Lampert to make money by auctioning off the store locations. Pretty amazing that they lasted this long.
16
1
Winston Smith on Aug 28, 1:46 PM said:
@Oscar Caballero : That would have been a sound strategy twelve years ago, when Lampert took over. Not anymore, even older customers who used to rely on Sears have had too many bad experiences, just look at the other comments in this thread. Younger ones have always relied on Home Depot and/or Lowe's, they never had any reason to set foot in Sears.
Show non-Insider replies
13
3
Winston Smith on Aug 28, 4:04 AM said:
Six months max. Probably the only reason they're still in business is that competition from Amazon has created a glut of brick-and-mortar retail space, making it harder for Eddie Lampert to make money by auctioning off the store locations. Pretty amazing that they lasted this long.
Show non-Insider comments earlier in this conversation
3
6
citizen1 on Aug 28, 5:57 AM said:
@merrel wilkenfeld: If it's really you, turn your book on again. Maybe as a Kindle book.
27
3
DougB325 on Aug 28, 11:07 AM said:
Most of Sears value comes from brand name products like Craftsman tools and DieHard batteries. Thing is Craftsman is made in China now. GE appliances are still good. I recently bought a fridge at Sears and had good customer service--although they had a deal involving their card that was misleadingly written. Sears is just having more severe versions of problems that many retailers are having. Someone else mentioned Radio Shack, whose problems stem from product lines being obsolete.
Sears was originally a catalog based company---the Sears catalog was essentially the pre-Internet version of amazon.com

[Twisted Titan]

We have at least half of our store on clearance. Too much stuff people don't want ... and what they do buy they will usually return as defective. ... Not long until the end, it will come soon."



Half the store on clearence???

Dayum.......