Canadian bad news

[Fire-medic]

What's gonna happen, is probably the dissolution of Sears Canada.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/sears-canada-looking-to-liquidate-all-stores-1.3626217

 

[AJBinVA]

Not good. All of the Sears service centers and Kmarts around me have shut down and the Sears stores themselves don't seem like they are going to be here much longer. It's like walking through a ghost town. Huge store and it feels like I had to walk a quarter mile to find an associate to unlock a display. Dates on the batteries at the auto center I worked at years ago were nearly a year old on relatively common sizes.

 

[sdt354]

It's almost time to stick a fork in Sears, I'm sorry to say. I expect a big sale soon. Tools aren't in stock like they used to be. The on line stores are killing retail. In the Northeast, Benny's stores are closing all 31 locations, no severance package for employees either.

 

[Redbone]

It's almost time to stick a fork in Sears, I'm sorry to say. I expect a big sale soon. Tools aren't in stock like they used to be. The on line stores are killing retail. In the Northeast, Benny's stores are closing all 31 locations, no severance package for employees either.

We have a small "Hometown" store here that's holding on so far, but the writings been on the wall for Sears for a while. Our Kmart closed a couple years ago but that has been a ghost town ever since Wally world showed up and with the addition on a Meijers this year the mom and pops are going to take a hit in our area.

 

[Kronx]

Online retail is changing the landscape in a big way -- for better or for worse is up for debate, and we're still in the early stages of that change. It seems writing on the wall for Sears has been there for some time. I guess there's just too many players in that space now? Or people just want something new? Right down the road from my house is a Home Depot, Lowes, and they just built a Menards -- and anytime I drive by them or go to one the lots are pretty empty. I don't know how any of them are making money. Well they probably aren't. But everyone around here loves Menards and I just don't get it. It doesn't seem any different than a Home Depot to me. I must be missing something.

Every time I see a picture of the CEO Amazon I think of Lex Luthor. Amazon even has Walmart worried.

 

[maxcruiser]

Retail is a vicious business that changes quickly and unfortunately Sears has not kept up with the times.

The Sears store here in Sudbury has looks pretty much the same today as it did 40 years ago.

Mike

 

[old timer]

Oh it's just Sears...I though you were going to say they ran out of beer , eh....:cheers:...at least that won't **** up hockey...go Bruins...

 

[Kronx]

Was listening to NPR this morning while driving into work and they were actually having a discussion on the changing landscape of retail and they actually a former CEO of Sears Canada on and they talked about the demise of Sears and department stores and they asked "Were brick and mortars just caught by surprise with the rise of online shopping?" I expected him to say yes, but his answer was(paraphrasing) "Any brick and mortar retail that says they were caught by surprise is probably full of it. " He claims they saw this coming. One fact he claimed that surprised me was in North America we have 20x more retail space per capita than any other country. So some of the problem is we overdeveloped.

He said: "We have to face up to the fact that we've overplayed a hand in this industry. We've created a monster that can't be fed."

And like I said in a previous post in this thread, I see this right around where I live. Hard for me to believe that the Menards they just built near me is making a profit. There really was no demand/need for that Mendards IMO. It seems like some developers have a Field of Dreams approach of "Build it and they will come."

Also something they pointed out that I didn't consider in regards to online is how much more people, especially teenagers, use mobile/internet more for social hangouts. In my day the mall was a main hub for teenager socializing. Now they do more socializing more online.

Retail job loss is 18x greater than the coal industry. That former CEO says he thinks the current estimates of future mall closures is conservative. He thinks it will be far more. It was a pretty interesting discussion for sure. Enlightened me on a few things regarding retail/mall development of which I was unaware.

 

[1FK00]

I have to admit that I'm part of the problem. I can order most things from Amazon other than big ticket items(cars, trucks and the like) and firearms, and get it in two days with no shipping or sales tax in most instances, at a price that brick and mortar stores cannot meet.

Which makes me wonder why don't they sell cars on line? It seems like it would work. Maybe.

 

[maxcruiser]

I have to admit that I'm part of the problem. I can order most things from Amazon other than big ticket items(cars, trucks and the like) and firearms, and get it in two days with no shipping or sales tax in most instances, at a price that brick and mortar stores cannot meet.

Which makes me wonder why don't they sell cars on line? It seems like it would work. Maybe.

You (we) are not part of the problem. As consumers, we create trends based on current day circumstances.

The emerging trend is e-commerce primarily due for the convenience that it offers a population that has become too busy to go shopping in large stores/malls.

E-commerce has been ten years plus in the making, so it's not like it happened overnight.

Sears did not have the foresight to divest in the brick and mortar style retailing and invest in the e-commerce trend. Sears execs dismissed the value of e-commerce and that is a big part of their demise.

Mike

 

[1FK00]

You are right of course. Huge corporate inertia there. I looked at their command structure the same as 1960 era Soviet Union. Not that they embraced communism, but that their entire upper management was made up of very old men of far removed generations - the very picture of those who resist change.