KMart and Sears to shutter 100 - 120 stores

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spmahn

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http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/27/news/companies/sears_kmart_closings/

No shock here, in fact the shock to me is the fact that Sears and KMart didn't go the way of Caldors, Bradlees, and Ames over the last decade. Every KMart is the same, they are in bad neighborhoods, located in ugly shopping centers that look the same today as they did in the 1970's. The stores themselves are dirty, poorly lit, and generally unpleasent to shop in. I appreciate the fact that their video game rep has reached out to us, but it just isn't enough. I won't be crying over this.

As for Sears, while they have a long and storied history, they do have a sort of stigma of being the store your father or grandfather shop in. I don't see them having a very bright future either.
 
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Well, putting shutters on the stores will definitely help the appearance of the stores around here. I don't think it will help with sales much though.

haha... but seriously... I agree, I'm surprised they haven't gone belly up. We used to have 2 k-mart stores here. They spent a ton of money remodeling both stores, then closed them less than 6 months later.
 
Does not shock me at all. Having stopped by both at least one K-Mart and Sears location during December it seemed like whatever "business as usual" attitude in their stores. Not to mention it was pretty dead of customers in there too which is bad during the holiday shopping season. You know you are failing when you see the parking lots for Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Target for instance jam packed full yet both K-Mart and Sears had more employees vehicles in their parking lot then customers.
 
Wow, Bradlees brings back memories, even Jamesway (if you remember them) along with Child's World.

I agree, K-Mart's are usually in bad areas, but there is one in Wayne NJ in the nice part of Wayne, but it seems to face the same issues, dirty, un-organized and never on top of their pricing it seems.

Every time I went there for a KMART deal listed here, all the games are locked up, can't find anyone to open it, and when I do, the price isn't reflected as stated on this site. They have PS3 launch titles still marked as $59.99. I doubt they sell very much there.
 
i've only been to one exceptionally prim and proper kmart but of course it was located in the rich part of town, I almost couldn't believe my eyes when i first saw it considering every other kmart i've seen looks like crap, even the other stores that were located in a fairly well off area
 
Probably 15 years ago, there was a Super K-Mart in a rich area around here. Super K-Mart as in it had a full large grocery section on top of the normal K-Mart goods. I don't know if all K-Marts are Super K-Marts now though. Some stuff was disorganized inside, but for the most part it was decently clean. It had a pretty sweet arcade at the front of the store too. It had a Little Caesars inside and I think another food stop. Eventually both closed down so there was this awkward abandoned area of the store. They eventually shuttered the store, which I always thought was too bad. The only other K-Mart in the area became really run down and it too closed shop. Coincidentally, both are Home Depots now.
 
[quote name='kodave']Probably 15 years ago, there was a Super K-Mart in a rich area around here. Super K-Mart as in it had a full large grocery section on top of the normal K-Mart goods. I don't know if all K-Marts are Super K-Marts now though. Some stuff was disorganized inside, but for the most part it was decently clean. It had a pretty sweet arcade at the front of the store too. It had a Little Caesars inside and I think another food stop. Eventually both closed down so there was this awkward abandoned area of the store. They eventually shuttered the store, which I always thought was too bad. The only other K-Mart in the area became really run down and it too closed shop. Coincidentally, both are Home Depots now.[/QUOTE]

When KMart bought Sears 7 or 8 years ago, and reorganized their retail stores, they closed just about all the Super KMart stores. The stores in this area all turned into 24 hour Wal-Marts. I think there might be a couple Super K stores left in the mid-west but for the most part they're all gone.
 
[quote name='Snake2715']I believe they have 2177 stores. sore 100 is not the end of the world.[/QUOTE]

Circuit City only started with 155 stores closing in November 2008. Just a few months later the entire company followed. So yeah this could be the beginning of the end for K-Mart/Sears.
 
Circuit City only started with 155 stores closing in November 2008. Just a few months later the entire company followed. So yeah this could be the beginning of the end for K-Mart/Sears.
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(Don't take this reply out of context - I'm agreeing with your point against Snake's statement)

The combined total of Movie Gallery, Hollywood Video and Game Crazy stores was double that of K-Mart. That whole company started its downfall and was completely dead in both NA and Canada in a little under three years.

The process was started with the shuttering of roughly 10% of its stores.

So this being the start of something much, much larger isn't that crazy of a thought.
 
Oh I agree that they are in trouble, probably deep trouble.

I guess my original comment was aimed at CAG90210 with worry about his $44.

With Circuit City we had ample time to cash out our gift cards, etc.

Also its about what, 5% of their stores, so for the most part we should all still be within reach I would think.

Once we get the list of stores then we can look at how it impacts teh reward members, etc.
 
The problem with Sears at least is they had a return policy that was so customer centric it hurt them big time.

I used to work as an IT Administrator for a delivery company who handled PC Richards, Sears, and big clients.

Sears had several customers twice a year buy Riding Mowers in the spring, return them for a full 100% refund in the fall, buy a snow blower, return it at the end of winter and repeat the process. We would be delivering and picking up for quite a few people doing this. Their Craftsman warranty was the best(and it hurt them though). You could practically return anything at anytime.
 
The only saving grace for Kmart is they own almost all the properties the stores are on. This saves them a lot of money. Sears had the smarts to become an anchor store at tons of malls and also owning the property or signing long term, low cost leases.
 
Apparently they've released a list that mentions more than half the stores that will be closing. Only one Kmart about an hour away from me will be closing in the area and it's in a crappy town that has a lot of robberies & shoplifting. So no surprise there.
 
almost RIP Sears/Kmart

haha smh they got that 300 million or so from IL for threatening to leave that state fjghfgjgfgjfgkh clever sears
 
I can't say I'm sorry to see them go if this is the beginning of the end for Kmart/Sears, but the only halfway redeeming things about Kmart/Sears lately have been the reboot of clearance at Sears, the super cheap clearance of last season's clothes at Kmart and on a rare occasion the KmartGamer deals.

Only reason I didn't really support the KmartGamer deals more often was that most of them weren't straight up discounts on games without requiring a prior purchase("coupon train"). I'd have rathered X game for $10-20 versus having to have a coupon from a prior $50-60 purchase.
 
If anything they should eliminate all of the top positions in the company, since it's obvious those executives haven't been making the best decisions for them to stay afloat.
 
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