Sears-Kmart Death Watch

[GCrites]

If you have to spend a bunch of time retraining staff to use a new POS/updates just so it matches how often you upgrade your home PC so that you can watch YouTube you might not have the right perspective on retail operations/IT. Migration can be a real nightmare and is the reason companies are always digging up addresses, phone numbers and other old info that is no longer accurate but you updated years ago. In addition, each feature your home PC has can make it completely wrong for a store. New, "cooler" stores have new POSes since they, as a company, are new and don't have to protect/access old data... AKA knowledge. There's a real magic that it takes for stores to be successful and updating the POS system to make it where you don't have to see a serial port isn't part of it.

In the case of credit card machines, yes that was an area where we as a nation were very behind Europe and it had the potential to truly have a negative effect on customers.

[RobbieL2415]

Belk used a similar system all the way to 2019.  They had IBM monitors and had the floppy disk drives as well.

And that is incredibly backwards for a modern retail operation. No wonder department stores are failing.

If anything I think retailers invest too much into new POS systems when it always seems like the cheaper ones are by far the most functional/problem free.  The rise of chip readers definitely had a huge affect recently with a lot of retailers being forced to finally update to something more modern.  There was a brief exemption by the credit card companies for chargebacks to become chip reader capable.

Our Kmart got new CTTs when we started accepting chip-enabled cards, even though the old ones could accept them.
Apparently 4690 OS doesn't meet international standards for handling chip card processing, so we had to bring in a separate PC to handle it. Essentially, when you tendered a card payment, the system controller would just wait for a response from the card processing PC, saying if it was approved, declined or needed authorization and then complete the rest of the transaction on its end.

[gonealookin]

Innovative use for a derelict former Kmart in Antioch, CA.  Somehow this feels appropriate.

A proposed large-scale cannabis business with indoor cultivation, distribution, manufacturing and a dispensary got the green light to proceed from the Antioch City Council.

The council on Tuesday unanimously approved the use permit, a variance and design review application for an independent San Francisco-based company to locate at the site of the former Kmart at 3625 E. 18th St. in northeastern Antioch, one of the city's two designated overlay districts where such business is allowed.
...
The applicant plans to conduct cultivation operations entirely indoors, with 87 flower rooms to occupy 47,715 square feet on two floors, for a total of 95,430 square feet of plants. The proposed non-volatile manufacturing operation will occupy some 7,785 square feet, with three shifts operating seven days a week in conjunction with the cultivation operations.

[jp the roadgeek]

Innovative use for a derelict former Kmart in Antioch, CA.  Somehow this feels appropriate.

A proposed large-scale cannabis business with indoor cultivation, distribution, manufacturing and a dispensary got the green light to proceed from the Antioch City Council.

The council on Tuesday unanimously approved the use permit, a variance and design review application for an independent San Francisco-based company to locate at the site of the former Kmart at 3625 E. 18th St. in northeastern Antioch, one of the city's two designated overlay districts where such business is allowed.
...
The applicant plans to conduct cultivation operations entirely indoors, with 87 flower rooms to occupy 47,715 square feet on two floors, for a total of 95,430 square feet of plants. The proposed non-volatile manufacturing operation will occupy some 7,785 square feet, with three shifts operating seven days a week in conjunction with the cultivation operations.

Will they use blue grow lights?

[Scott5114]

Innovative use for a derelict former Kmart in Antioch, CA.  Somehow this feels appropriate.

A proposed large-scale cannabis business with indoor cultivation, distribution, manufacturing and a dispensary got the green light to proceed from the Antioch City Council.

The council on Tuesday unanimously approved the use permit, a variance and design review application for an independent San Francisco-based company to locate at the site of the former Kmart at 3625 E. 18th St. in northeastern Antioch, one of the city's two designated overlay districts where such business is allowed.
...
The applicant plans to conduct cultivation operations entirely indoors, with 87 flower rooms to occupy 47,715 square feet on two floors, for a total of 95,430 square feet of plants. The proposed non-volatile manufacturing operation will occupy some 7,785 square feet, with three shifts operating seven days a week in conjunction with the cultivation operations.

Will they use blue grow lights?

Pretty inventive use of the space. Of course you can use any sort of building for a cannabis grow as long as you can climate-control it and control the light-dark cycle.

Like any plant, you want to give cannabis something at least approximating natural sunlight. UV is part of that spectrum, which means some special blue (ish) lights are gonna be part of the mix...

[hbelkins]

Around here, a growing number of former Kmart locations are becoming Rural King stores. I'm becoming a fan of RK. They carry a lot of the same merchandise as Tractor Supply and Lowe's but at much better prices. They're even cheaper than Walmart on a lot of things.

[thenetwork]

Ooooh, the LAST Kmart in New York City/Manhattan
just up and closed with little notice.   https://gothamist.com/news/kmart-unlikely-astor-place-icon-shutters-without-notice

Could the Fat Lady be finally stepping up to the microphone???

[catch22]

As previously mentioned, the last Sears in Michigan at Westland Mall is closing.  I was in the mall the other day and took a quick lap through the store to check out the liquidation sale.  Not much of anything left, but this store's stock had been dwindling for months so that's no surprise.

I took a few pictures:  https://imgur.com/a/xHmSZ9d

This will leave the Marshall Kmart as the only ex Sears Holdings store in the state.  The clock does continue to tick.

[Flint1979]

As previously mentioned, the last Sears in Michigan at Westland Mall is closing.  I was in the mall the other day and took a quick lap through the store to check out the liquidation sale.  Not much of anything left, but this store's stock had been dwindling for months so that's no surprise.

I took a few pictures:  https://imgur.com/a/xHmSZ9d

This will leave the Marshall Kmart as the only ex Sears Holdings store in the state.  The clock does continue to tick.

I was in Westland within the last two weeks. The Sears store is almost empty and will be closed within a month. The rest of the mall looks like it's going downhill pretty quick. That Marshall Kmart only remains open because it's the closest Meijer, Target or Walmart are in Battle Creek. If one of those stores opened in Marshall then that Kmart would close.

[ET21]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

[US71]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

How many are left in Illinois?

[I-39]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

How many are left in Illinois?

I think just Woodfield in Schaumburg, which I believe will be the last to close IMO.

[Revive 755]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

How many are left in Illinois?

I think just Woodfield in Schaumburg, which I believe will be the last to close IMO.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/sears-is-shutting-its-last-store-in-illinois-its-home-state.html

(edited to fix link)

[-- US 175 --]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

How many are left in Illinois?

I think just Woodfield in Schaumburg, which I believe will be the last to close IMO.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/sears-is-shutting-its-last-store-in-illinois-its-home-state.html

[I-39]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

How many are left in Illinois?

I think just Woodfield in Schaumburg, which I believe will be the last to close IMO.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/sears-is-shutting-its-last-store-in-illinois-its-home-state.html

Just sad. There is no reason this had to happen. Sears could have been like Target today if Eddie didn't put his hands on the company.

[OCGuy81]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

How many are left in Illinois?

I think just Woodfield in Schaumburg, which I believe will be the last to close IMO.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/sears-is-shutting-its-last-store-in-illinois-its-home-state.html

Just sad. There is no reason this had to happen. Sears could have been like Target today if Eddie didn't put his hands on the company.

Yep! A cautionary tale of poor management.

[Life in Paradise]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

How many are left in Illinois?

I think just Woodfield in Schaumburg, which I believe will be the last to close IMO.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/sears-is-shutting-its-last-store-in-illinois-its-home-state.html

Just sad. There is no reason this had to happen. Sears could have been like Target today if Eddie didn't put his hands on the company.

Yep! A cautionary tale of poor management.

Lambert hastened the process, but Sears had been making bad moves since at least the 80s.

[I-39]

Our Sears in Chicago Ridge finally got the death notice, many thought it'd be the last survivor in Chicagoland or even Illinois.

How many are left in Illinois?

I think just Woodfield in Schaumburg, which I believe will be the last to close IMO.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/sears-is-shutting-its-last-store-in-illinois-its-home-state.html

Just sad. There is no reason this had to happen. Sears could have been like Target today if Eddie didn't put his hands on the company.

Yep! A cautionary tale of poor management.

Lambert hastened the process, but Sears had been making bad moves since at least the 80s.

True, but without Eddie, they could have been revived. I blame Alan Lacy and Arthur Martinez for setting the stage for Lamperts reign.

Sears should have acquired Target instead of being bought by Kmart. Combining the strengths of both brands would have helped save the company. Plus, Target would have given them access to more prestiges off mall locations.

[OCGuy81]

Hindsight is 20/20.  I can't help but be reminded of how Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy Netflix.

[ET21]

Very sad, there are no more Sears in what was its home region in Chicagoland. Ironically, people who call Willis Tower Sears Tower still (like myself) is still keeping the name alive at least lol

[GCrites]

But if you call it Willis tower it reminds one of the late Wesley Willis -- another important Chicagoan.

[1995hoo]

But if you call it Willis tower it reminds one of the late Wesley Willis -- another important Chicagoan.

I picture Willis Drummond.

[Mapmikey]

But if you call it Willis tower it reminds one of the late Wesley Willis -- another important Chicagoan.

I picture Willis Drummond.

The many Chicago River crossings nearby remind me of Todd Bridges...

[catch22]

It appears that the Marshall, Michigan Kmart is closing, per this Sears Jobs' Twitter post.  No date listed, but per other similar notices, I'd guess sometime in November.

https://twitter.com/SearsJobs/status/1441502012181385219

I think this was the last ex Sears Holdings location in the Midwest left after all the other recent closure announcements.

 

[Flint1979]

It appears that the Marshall, Michigan Kmart is closing, per this Sears Jobs' Twitter post.  No date listed, but per other similar notices, I'd guess sometime in November.

https://twitter.com/SearsJobs/status/1441502012181385219

I think this was the last ex Sears Holdings location in the Midwest left after all the other recent closure announcements.

I was in that Kmart a few weeks ago and it didn't appear to be closing and I can't find anything online that says it's closing I wouldn't be surprised if it did but then that would leave Marshall without a Meijer, Walmart, Target and Kmart if they are closing it.