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6 Months

20 (19.6%)

9 Months

10 (9.8%)

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28 (27.5%)

Two Years

21 (20.6%)

Five Years

13 (12.7%)

Ten Years

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9 (8.8%)

Total Members Voted: 102

[Tonytone]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Irony there being Sears was a huge investor in Prodigy Online in the 80s/90s and was the first major retailer to have online shopping.  They were actually in that market about a decade and a half too soon which made it a failure.

And thats the problem. Scared money don’t make money. If sears would have taken the risk & not chickened out. They would have been a Walmart or amazon brand. But the old school is said to say over. A little bit will come back here & there. But people want technology & they want shit fast. The internet was scary at that time.  But if you don’t take risks sometimes. How will you know you failed?


iPhone

You're aware wireless internet wasn't mainstream for about another decade by the time Sears divested?  That project bled money constantly no matter how hard Sears pushed it.  They even had a show case on Regis and Kathie Lee that went nowhere, there was a later Howard Stern plug that also went bubkus.  At the time we're talking dial-up internet and closed ISPs being the order of the day, speed definitely wasn't anywhere what we have today.

I understand that. But if the people who created AOL & Steve jobs who created Iphones. Didnt keep working on it & trying new things. Even when it was slow & clunky. What would we have today? A Ipear made by Leave bobs? Cmon sears could have really changed the game. They had basically everything at one point. Except a grocery store. Correct me if im wrong.


iPhone

[wxfree]

It's Chapter 11.  They're going for a prolonged death.  Sears built itself on selling stuff cheaper than their competitors could. It seems entirely fitting that they should fail because someone else played their own game better.  They're getting bitten in the ass by karma.  As it was at their birth, when the new model was better for the people, so it is at their death.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

[Scott5114]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Irony there being Sears was a huge investor in Prodigy Online in the 80s/90s and was the first major retailer to have online shopping.  They were actually in that market about a decade and a half too soon which made it a failure.

And thats the problem. Scared money don’t make money. If sears would have taken the risk & not chickened out. They would have been a Walmart or amazon brand. But the old school is said to say over. A little bit will come back here & there. But people want technology & they want shit fast. The internet was scary at that time.  But if you don’t take risks sometimes. How will you know you failed?


iPhone

You're aware wireless internet wasn't mainstream for about another decade by the time Sears divested?  That project bled money constantly no matter how hard Sears pushed it.  They even had a show case on Regis and Kathie Lee that went nowhere, there was a later Howard Stern plug that also went bubkus.  At the time we're talking dial-up internet and closed ISPs being the order of the day, speed definitely wasn't anywhere what we have today.

I understand that. But if the people who created AOL & Steve jobs who created Iphones. Didnt keep working on it & trying new things. Even when it was slow & clunky. What would we have today? A Ipear made by Leave bobs? Cmon sears could have really changed the game. They had basically everything at one point. Except a grocery store. Correct me if im wrong.


iPhone

Business doesn't really work that way. Innovation means nothing unless income outpaces expenses. There's a lot of really cool stuff you can do but can't turn a profit with, so it doesn't get done. A big part of that is if the concept is marketable. The world's most efficient interchange is useless if you can't sign it in a way people can navigate it, and so the coolest product in the world is worthless if you can't market it.

[Brandon]

It's Chapter 11.  They're going for a prolonged death.  Sears built itself on selling stuff cheaper than their competitors could. It seems entirely fitting that they should fail because someone else played their own game better.  They're getting bitten in the ass by karma.  As it was at their birth, when the new model was better for the people, so it is at their death.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

The beginning of the end. A plan to close yet another 142 stores, and the removal of Eddie Lampert as CEO.

[Max Rockatansky]

It's Chapter 11.  They're going for a prolonged death.  Sears built itself on selling stuff cheaper than their competitors could. It seems entirely fitting that they should fail because someone else played their own game better.  They're getting bitten in the ass by karma.  As it was at their birth, when the new model was better for the people, so it is at their death.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

The beginning of the end. A plan to close yet another 142 stores, and the removal of Eddie Lampert as CEO.

Heh, now they think it’s the time to get rid of old Eddie? 

[Max Rockatansky]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Irony there being Sears was a huge investor in Prodigy Online in the 80s/90s and was the first major retailer to have online shopping.  They were actually in that market about a decade and a half too soon which made it a failure.

And thats the problem. Scared money don’t make money. If sears would have taken the risk & not chickened out. They would have been a Walmart or amazon brand. But the old school is said to say over. A little bit will come back here & there. But people want technology & they want shit fast. The internet was scary at that time.  But if you don’t take risks sometimes. How will you know you failed?


iPhone

You're aware wireless internet wasn't mainstream for about another decade by the time Sears divested?  That project bled money constantly no matter how hard Sears pushed it.  They even had a show case on Regis and Kathie Lee that went nowhere, there was a later Howard Stern plug that also went bubkus.  At the time we're talking dial-up internet and closed ISPs being the order of the day, speed definitely wasn't anywhere what we have today.

I understand that. But if the people who created AOL & Steve jobs who created Iphones. Didnt keep working on it & trying new things. Even when it was slow & clunky. What would we have today? A Ipear made by Leave bobs? Cmon sears could have really changed the game. They had basically everything at one point. Except a grocery store. Correct me if im wrong.


iPhone

Business doesn't really work that way. Innovation means nothing unless income outpaces expenses. There's a lot of really cool stuff you can do but can't turn a profit with, so it doesn't get done. A big part of that is if the concept is marketable. The world's most efficient interchange is useless if you can't sign it in a way people can navigate it, and so the coolest product in the world is worthless if you can't market it.

Funny, I seem to recall groceries were part of the pitch for Prodigy Online sales too.  It wasn’t just Sears that pulled their money out mind you, a lot of companies did.  Prodigy was marketed terribly and way over moderated.  They let net provides like AOL slip in and sap take all their market share away (which was only a couple million at most) because they couldn’t understand what their users wanted.  It’s hard to sell to a board of stockholders a product that is failing on the market like that.   

[kalvado]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Irony there being Sears was a huge investor in Prodigy Online in the 80s/90s and was the first major retailer to have online shopping.  They were actually in that market about a decade and a half too soon which made it a failure.

And thats the problem. Scared money don’t make money. If sears would have taken the risk & not chickened out. They would have been a Walmart or amazon brand. But the old school is said to say over. A little bit will come back here & there. But people want technology & they want shit fast. The internet was scary at that time.  But if you don’t take risks sometimes. How will you know you failed?


iPhone

You're aware wireless internet wasn't mainstream for about another decade by the time Sears divested?  That project bled money constantly no matter how hard Sears pushed it.  They even had a show case on Regis and Kathie Lee that went nowhere, there was a later Howard Stern plug that also went bubkus.  At the time we're talking dial-up internet and closed ISPs being the order of the day, speed definitely wasn't anywhere what we have today.

I understand that. But if the people who created AOL & Steve jobs who created Iphones. Didnt keep working on it & trying new things. Even when it was slow & clunky. What would we have today? A Ipear made by Leave bobs? Cmon sears could have really changed the game. They had basically everything at one point. Except a grocery store. Correct me if im wrong.


iPhone

You may not fully understand the meaning of "slow and chunky", and capabilities of hardware those days. Screen resolution is a fraction of cheap  (64x480 or 800x600) is a fraction of what is standard for the phone these days, and it takes maybe a minute to download a full screen size picture at 33.6k
Catalog shopping was popular because a single catalog page could contain more information than you could ever download via the modem.
It may be for a good reason that Amazon - which started as a bookstore - grew up the way it did as you can sell books in a text-only mode without many issues.
Delivery was more expensive, and I believe credit card processing was more involved.
Maybe there was a way to improve catalog sales with dial-in service, but you mentioned groceries.. which were definitely a non-starter.
Something really trivial in 2018 was too difficult in the days of faxes.

[inkyatari]

It's Chapter 11.  They're going for a prolonged death.  Sears built itself on selling stuff cheaper than their competitors could. It seems entirely fitting that they should fail because someone else played their own game better.  They're getting bitten in the ass by karma.  As it was at their birth, when the new model was better for the people, so it is at their death.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

The beginning of the end. A plan to close yet another 142 stores, and the removal of Eddie Lampert as CEO.

Good riddance to bad rubbish (lampert)

[Max Rockatansky]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Irony there being Sears was a huge investor in Prodigy Online in the 80s/90s and was the first major retailer to have online shopping.  They were actually in that market about a decade and a half too soon which made it a failure.

And thats the problem. Scared money don’t make money. If sears would have taken the risk & not chickened out. They would have been a Walmart or amazon brand. But the old school is said to say over. A little bit will come back here & there. But people want technology & they want shit fast. The internet was scary at that time.  But if you don’t take risks sometimes. How will you know you failed?


iPhone

You're aware wireless internet wasn't mainstream for about another decade by the time Sears divested?  That project bled money constantly no matter how hard Sears pushed it.  They even had a show case on Regis and Kathie Lee that went nowhere, there was a later Howard Stern plug that also went bubkus.  At the time we're talking dial-up internet and closed ISPs being the order of the day, speed definitely wasn't anywhere what we have today.

I understand that. But if the people who created AOL & Steve jobs who created Iphones. Didnt keep working on it & trying new things. Even when it was slow & clunky. What would we have today? A Ipear made by Leave bobs? Cmon sears could have really changed the game. They had basically everything at one point. Except a grocery store. Correct me if im wrong.


iPhone

You may not fully understand the meaning of "slow and chunky", and capabilities of hardware those days. Screen resolution is a fraction of cheap  (64x480 or 800x600) is a fraction of what is standard for the phone these days, and it takes maybe a minute to download a full screen size picture at 33.6k
Catalog shopping was popular because a single catalog page could contain more information than you could ever download via the modem.
It may be for a good reason that Amazon - which started as a bookstore - grew up the way it did as you can sell books in a text-only mode without many issues.
Delivery was more expensive, and I believe credit card processing was more involved.
Maybe there was a way to improve catalog sales with dial-in service, but you mentioned groceries.. which were definitely a non-starter.
Something really trivial in 2018 was too difficult in the days of faxes.

Worse yet early services like Prodigy were also subscription based meaning you only had a limited number of minutes to use before overages occurred. 

[abefroman329]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Considering Walmart used to take out life insurance policies on its employees and pocket the money when they died, “a little better” doesn’t really mean much. And I don’t think it’s that they treat their employees better so much as other companies are drawing media attention about their poor treatment of employees away from Walmart.

[Max Rockatansky]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Considering Walmart used to take out life insurance policies on its employees and pocket the money when they died, “a little better” doesn’t really mean much. And I don’t think it’s that they treat their employees better so much as other companies are drawing media attention about their poor treatment of employees away from Walmart.

Some of the Workman’s Comp claims that come out of retail are really interesting.  On the whole you have a work force that is generally given access to machinery like fork lifts and compactors with very little training.  Most of the mundane accident come from poor lifting techniques or falls related to messy work environments. 

[Brandon]

Here's a map from CNBC showing all the locations then and now:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/15/sears-is-closing-another-142-stores-heres-a-map-of-the-locations-it-has-left.html

[catch22]

Here's the list of the store closings related to the bankruptcy filing:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/10/15/sears-holdings-bankruptcy-store-closures/1645971002/

[Brandon]

And the new list is out: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/10/15/sears-holdings-bankruptcy-store-closures/1645971002/

And yes, my local Sears is on it.  Fortunately, Sears Holdings leases the location from Seritage, so it shouldn't be empty too long.

[US71]

Arkansas is losing its last K-Mart (in Russellville). I was never impressed by it: disorganized, dirty, poorly staffed. Also lots of wrong prices at check-out and no one available to resolve the problem.

[Tonytone]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Irony there being Sears was a huge investor in Prodigy Online in the 80s/90s and was the first major retailer to have online shopping.  They were actually in that market about a decade and a half too soon which made it a failure.

And thats the problem. Scared money don’t make money. If sears would have taken the risk & not chickened out. They would have been a Walmart or amazon brand. But the old school is said to say over. A little bit will come back here & there. But people want technology & they want shit fast. The internet was scary at that time.  But if you don’t take risks sometimes. How will you know you failed?


iPhone

You're aware wireless internet wasn't mainstream for about another decade by the time Sears divested?  That project bled money constantly no matter how hard Sears pushed it.  They even had a show case on Regis and Kathie Lee that went nowhere, there was a later Howard Stern plug that also went bubkus.  At the time we're talking dial-up internet and closed ISPs being the order of the day, speed definitely wasn't anywhere what we have today.

I understand that. But if the people who created AOL & Steve jobs who created Iphones. Didnt keep working on it & trying new things. Even when it was slow & clunky. What would we have today? A Ipear made by Leave bobs? Cmon sears could have really changed the game. They had basically everything at one point. Except a grocery store. Correct me if im wrong.


iPhone

Business doesn't really work that way. Innovation means nothing unless income outpaces expenses. There's a lot of really cool stuff you can do but can't turn a profit with, so it doesn't get done. A big part of that is if the concept is marketable. The world's most efficient interchange is useless if you can't sign it in a way people can navigate it, and so the coolest product in the world is worthless if you can't market it.

Yes. Business does not work like that of course you have to make income in order to maintain . But have some of y’all forgotten what apple came from? Last time I checked Steve jobs was denounced CEO of his own company, because it was failing. Then a new head of people come in & made worse ideas & well you guys know what happened. Jobs came back & kept working on the same thing that failed. Computers & then the I-Pods,I-Phones, iPads & etc. but he made a game changer & that stuck with the American people. We can compare the *Apple Newton* to *Sears* trying the internet. It didn’t work. But that doesn’t mean give up. Sears messed up by just FOCUSING on internet. They should have been trying new things as-well that were head of the game.


iPhone

[catch22]

And the new list is out: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/10/15/sears-holdings-bankruptcy-store-closures/1645971002/

And yes, my local Sears is on it.  Fortunately, Sears Holdings leases the location from Seritage, so it shouldn't be empty too long.

Two locals for me, Lincoln Park and Ann Arbor (Briarwood Mall).  The LP store was the closest store to my house when I was growing up before the Livonia store opened in the mid-'60s; a lot of my back-to-school clothes came from there.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Its time for them to go, this has been dragged out way too many years.  A last minute buyer is just prolong what ought to happen now.

Amazon is the new Sears. Walmart blew Kmart out the water. Maybe if these stores studied statistics of what’s popular like “Electronics” & fast “quick” service. They would have survived.

*Walmart is surviving because they are now putting their workers & stores first a little more* I Say this from experience of working in walmart in recent years. I know they were shitty back in the day. & sometimes they can be now. But they have turned around.*
iPhone

Irony there being Sears was a huge investor in Prodigy Online in the 80s/90s and was the first major retailer to have online shopping.  They were actually in that market about a decade and a half too soon which made it a failure.

And thats the problem. Scared money don’t make money. If sears would have taken the risk & not chickened out. They would have been a Walmart or amazon brand. But the old school is said to say over. A little bit will come back here & there. But people want technology & they want shit fast. The internet was scary at that time.  But if you don’t take risks sometimes. How will you know you failed?


iPhone

You're aware wireless internet wasn't mainstream for about another decade by the time Sears divested?  That project bled money constantly no matter how hard Sears pushed it.  They even had a show case on Regis and Kathie Lee that went nowhere, there was a later Howard Stern plug that also went bubkus.  At the time we're talking dial-up internet and closed ISPs being the order of the day, speed definitely wasn't anywhere what we have today.

I understand that. But if the people who created AOL & Steve jobs who created Iphones. Didnt keep working on it & trying new things. Even when it was slow & clunky. What would we have today? A Ipear made by Leave bobs? Cmon sears could have really changed the game. They had basically everything at one point. Except a grocery store. Correct me if im wrong.


iPhone

Business doesn't really work that way. Innovation means nothing unless income outpaces expenses. There's a lot of really cool stuff you can do but can't turn a profit with, so it doesn't get done. A big part of that is if the concept is marketable. The world's most efficient interchange is useless if you can't sign it in a way people can navigate it, and so the coolest product in the world is worthless if you can't market it.

Yes. Business does not work like that of course you have to make income in order to maintain . But have some of y’all forgotten what apple came from? Last time I checked Steve jobs was denounced CEO of his own company, because it was failing. Then a new head of people come in & made worse ideas & well you guys know what happened. Jobs came back & kept working on the same thing that failed. Computers & then the I-Pods,I-Phones, iPads & etc. but he made a game changer & that stuck with the American people. We can compare the *Apple Newton* to *Sears* trying the internet. It didn’t work. But that doesn’t mean give up. Sears messed up by just FOCUSING on internet. They should have been trying new things as-well that were head of the game.


iPhone

That’s what Dad used to say and he was the marketing VP of Prodigy Online.  It’s not like they didn’t give it their all, they even sponsored a race team for a couple years.  When you’re an old school publicly traded company you have to answer to stock holders and a board of directors on where/what your money is doing.  We’re talking a far different world in the early 1990s, innovation wasn’t coming from the old school giants of retail. 

[ET21]

I'll give them until the end of the decade, 2020 is the max

[jeffandnicole]

Tony...you have no idea what the internet was like when Sears was pushing it. You couldn't readily download a picture. People also paid for their time online. If you didn't have a local number to connect to the internet, you had to pay to simply get online. And you paid per minute...which was easily 10 cents or more per minute as It was a local-long distance call. It was life-changing when you got 10 hours a month for free. I remember roadgroups at the time highly discouraging posting a pic on a post because of the incredible download time needed.

You simply can't compare 25 - 30 years ago to what we can do today. In hindsight maybe Sears could've done things differently, but it was so far removed from their core business model that it really didn't make sense at the time.

[Max Rockatansky]

Tony...you have no idea what the internet was like when Sears was pushing it. You couldn't readily download a picture. People also paid for their time online. If you didn't have a local number to connect to the internet, you had to pay to simply get online. And you paid per minute...which was easily 10 cents or more per minute as It was a local-long distance call. It was life-changing when you got 10 hours a month for free. I remember roadgroups at the time highly discouraging posting a pic on a post because of the incredible download time needed.

You simply can't compare 25 - 30 years ago to what we can do today. In hindsight maybe Sears could've done things differently, but it was so far removed from their core business model that it really didn't make sense at the time.

Hell most of the marketing was focused on shopping or checking stock quotes.  Nobody could foresee that the message boards and chat rooms would become the most popular feature.  I do miss those DOS based graphics...shame Mad Maze never got finished. 

[inkyatari]

And the new list is out: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/10/15/sears-holdings-bankruptcy-store-closures/1645971002/

And yes, my local Sears is on it.  Fortunately, Sears Holdings leases the location from Seritage, so it shouldn't be empty too long.

I'm surprised this location held on as long as it did. 

[MikieTimT]

Arkansas is losing its last K-Mart (in Russellville). I was never impressed by it: disorganized, dirty, poorly staffed. Also lots of wrong prices at check-out and no one available to resolve the problem.

I'm surprised that any K-Marts lasted this long in the home state of Wal-Mart.  It could happen just as easily with Wal-Mart if someone else takes care of the customer better or cheaper.  At least they're investing in the stores and coming up with different ways to blend on and offline commerce, so there's hope that Amazon doesn't just run everyone into the ground.

[jeffandnicole]

My local Sears in Deptford and a Kmart in Glassboro are finally listed.  I would go into Sears because my mom liked their Lands End clothing for Christmas. The Kmart I've been in twice in the past few years just for kicks, but usually walked out buying something.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky has two Kmarts on the list, in Grayson and Russell Springs. The one in Grayson does not have a local Walmart competitor, and I don't think the one in Russell Springs does either.