K-Mart/Sears To Close Twenty-One Stores By Spring

[bleacho]

nanook, you hit it right on the head....

fortunately after 2 and 1/2 years as a store manager for sears, i resigned my position and ran as fast as i could..
right before i joined sears i was pretty intimidated in thinking how large and important being a store manager for sears would be. those thoughts certainly changed..
on the outside the company may appear powerful and know what theyre doing, but inside the company, you see nothing but dysfunction. managed from the powers that be, by intimidation and threat, there is absolutely any conversation of concern for their quality of life for their associates, and all levels in the stores..
the saddest part is seeing the old timers that work there. theyre people simply waiting for the old sears work culture to come back... when they felt valued..
23 store closings? thats a drop in the bucket for them this year. but i dont see anything changing- in fact theyre going down faster than anyone realizes.
they are a company that simply is off a beat. competitors literally stole their customer base they once had right away from them. sears never thought it would ever affect them, but bit by bit, they lost their power. now its just too late
i say they deserve it.
never in my 25 years in management was i ever treated so poorly..

 

[appnut]

Thanks Allen. I figured that store had gone long ago cuz of your observation. How well I remember that crash of '86. I was trying to seel a 10 month old (what I considered my dream) house in Cypress because I was being transferred here.

 

[peteski50]

Business!

All the businesses in the USA is going sour because of all the bad practices. So if you have a job most tell me it is unbearable because of the way things are being run. I am happy to be working but I have to agree their is so much dysfunction going on. Thats why everything is colapsing.

 

[roto204]

Anatomy of collapse

Here's an interesting tangent, if only to illustrate how you can be gorgeous, massively successful, and still fail in less than 12 years:

Here's the heyday...

Here's the story (love the detail--note the part about how they never "got" the idea of coupons)...

Here's the result...

 

[nanook]

It Really is Too Bad

Bleacho's experience seems (unfortunately) to add one more nail in the coffin. In another article appearing in the NYTimes announcing the double in profits for the latest quarter (enjoy it while it lasts, Eddie) Chairman Edward Lampert argued for 'less government spending and regulation' then went on to bemoan the fact of inequality in the sales tax system. Hmmm, Wal-Mart seems to have prospered (an understatement). When you start to blame others......

As I stated to a friend earlier today: Mr. Lampert didn't create the mess that's been growing for decades, he just bamboozled the board into thinking he knew what he was doing when it came to dragging them back into consciousness. No such luck there. Their situation requires more than the usual feel-good pep talks CEO's seem so skilled at - most with little more than hot air behind them; this one being no exception. Any meaningful turn-around truly requires a visionary (and luck) but Mr. Eddie and most others in his 'club' need not apply - they're just hacks.

Make that TWO more nails in the coffin.

 

[whirlcool]

The story of Dixie Mall and Greenspoint is similar. Only the Grrenspoint Mall is still open to a few businesses. Sears is still there, but will close by May 9, 2010.
As most retailers know, a mall cannot sustain itself without any anchor stores.
Besides, a very nice Sears is located in The Woodlands mall only 16 miles to the north. And it is a very nice Sears.

Sharpstown Mall, built in 1961 and renovated in the mid 80's is another dying mall on the SW side of Houston. It's in pretty much the same condition as Greenspoint. J.C. Penny moved out around 1991 and the space has never been re-leased to anyone else. Macy's closed down two years ago and the last anchor Montgomery Wards closed years ago. It's a good sized mall, I wonder what will become of it?

That entire section of Houston has become a ghetto gang war zone. It's amazing that in just 15 short years it went from very nice to what it is today.

 

[sudsman]

Allen

What ever happened to Northline/ I lived their in the late 60s, But heard that it went down quick in the 70s

 

[tomturbomatic]

When people in America made stuff in America that was bought in America the economy had more stability. Then captains of industry found a way around having to pay decent wages and offer decent benefits: move the manufacturing to a turd world country. They got laws passed to allow this without having to pay import duties. Then they got even greedier and decided that to avoid paying taxes they would move locations of incorporation to various off-shore locations and got congress to pass laws permitting that. The plundering of our national treasury happened while Americans were dazzled by the side shows of school prayer, gay rights, abortion and the streak on the tp known as family values. I fear that the nation's economy is in the same state as that of Sears with an outlook just as bleak. Walmart has prospered selling Chinese sh*t to the masses. They have destroyed whole business districts in towns where they have sprung up like tumors. Friends live in a town in Tennessee. The grocery store situation is pathetic because the town had to sign a non-competition agreement with Walmart meaning that no new grocery stores could be opened for a certain number of years after the Walmart opened. So people have to make the long drive to Walmart to shop the crowded store to buy decent groceries. Walmart has replaced the deservedly maligned "Company Store," to which Tennessee Ernie Ford owed his soul in the song Sixteen Tons, as the only place to shop in some locales. America is waking up to the fact that you can't have an economy that supports a nation if you don't make things. There is nothing wrong with imports, but a country has to make an array of things to export, not just weapons systems and military actions. I hope I do not live to see the day when the recipients of tax dollars and I mean all of them, the corporate farms, the corporations, the old, the sick, the poor and wealthy alike are finally told that we can't continue to do it anymore, il n'y a plus. If anyone wonders what a Dies Irae looks like, that will be a close second.

 

[112561]

Southdale Mall, Minneapolis

Dixie Square Mall has to be the Titanic story of all malldom.
By the way, does anyone have any historical information or pictures of the first enclosed mall built in Minneapolis in 1956?

 

[bleacho]

nanook, im impressed, YOU GET IT!!!!

thanks for really understanding. youre a smart tuned in person. i am very impressed....you are RIGHT ON THE MONEY!!

 

[danemodsandy]

Alan:

Wikipedia has an article on Southdale, which is actually in Edina (ee-DYE-nuh), a suburb of Minneapolis. It was designed by Victor Gruen Associates (also responsible for those soaring Penn Fruit grocery stores, with their glue-lam parabolic roof beams).

It opened in '56, and most of the original is still in use; it's the oldest covered, climate-controlled mall in the nation. It has survived not just changing fashion, but the opening of the Mall of America, which is the largest in the U.S. Normally, a mega-mall opening so close to an existing older one (MOA is only four miles away from Southdale) is the death knell for the older mall. Southdale management has been very proactive about keeping a good tenant mix and maintaining the mall, thus keeping shoppers coming to it. There have been problems with gang-related crime in the last couple of years, but again, mall management is taking steps designed to address the situation.

Here's a vintage pic of Southdale's interior space:

Southdale Center - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[112561]

I can always count on Sandy!

I had no idea it existed in any form today, according to the Lileks articles on Minneapolis, a lot of really wild stuff from the teens to the fifties and beyond, have been eradicated, and many post-apocalyptic looking structures have taken their places. Thanks for taking the time to look for this Sandy, and you and whoever check out this site:

LILEKS (James) Minneapolis

 

[volvoguy87]

Bingo Tom!

Henry Ford, although an imperfect person to say the least, did figure out an essential element of sustainable economics. If you want your consumer-goods company to prosper, your employees must be able to afford to buy the products they make!

Also, we have moved to a very very wasteful society in which manufactured goods are so cheaply made that they are thrown away instead of repaired when they break or malfunction. There used to be a whole service industry dedicated to small appliance repair (toasters, lamps, coffee makers, mixers, radios, TVs, etc.) that has almost entirely vanished. I fear that even white goods repair is going the way of the dodo. It's unfortunate because the appliance repair business used to be an essential part in nearly every community in the country that provided a respectable income and profession to many many people.

Dave

 

[whirlcool]

North Line mall in Houston was totally renovated about 2001 or so. It is no longer a mall, but a large strip center. The main tenant is the Magic Johnson theater and I think a Conn's. The area is largely hispanic. It's holding it's own.

Meyerland mall was demalled the same way around 1997 or so and the renovation has been a complete success. It too was a dying mall and they when they demalled it (made all the stores with outside access only) it flourished.

Westwood mall has been turned into a trade school with a single retailer(Sears) at the end.

First Colony mall in Sugarland has sucked all the retail off of 59 into it. It's a nice mall, but it too has had gang shootings and bank robberies on the property.

 

[cadman]

Regarding plundering and side shows, let's not forget the #1 bedazzler, GREED. Consumers are just as much to blame.

I will gladly pay more for a US made item and patronize a store that hasn't stooped to the lowest common marketing denominator, but many still won't.

As an observation...My grandparents simply cannot see the connection between the closing of main-street businesses and the rise of the local Walmart.

Friends and family in the 'boomer age bracket have the worst track record by my observation of thinking they can have their cake and eat it to. Walmart is always the first stop for a widget because it's the cheapest. I "fight" with a friend of that age that claims he's oblivious to the advantages elsewhere, like the Target across the street.

With clean carpetted floors, smiling employees dusting items and tidying shelves. You look up and see ceiling tiles rather than steel trusses. Also blind to the attention to detail and creativity in the displays and signage. The advertising that doesn't look like a retail design ripoff.

Focusing on price and throwing out the worth of "value" seems to be on the rise these days. But I'm seeing the tide start to turn as younger generations gain buying power.

 

[whirlcool]

Remember in the mid 80's when WalMart was advertising the "Made In The USA" credo? Whatever happened with THAT?

 

[maytagbear]

Wal*Mart

put both nearby K-marts out of business, by undercutting their price for about the first two years.

The only thing I routinely buy at Wal*Mart are my Dr Scholl's diabetic comfort socks (haven't found them elsewhere) and my eyeglasses (nearest provider my insurance accepts.)

The K-mart in my town was usually quite clean, with decent staff...

When I go see my sister and family in Richfield, MN, I prefer to go to Southdale. Mall of America is simply overwhelming to me. I go directly to Nordstrom's now, and THAT IS IT for MOA.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[danemodsandy]

Cory:

I think you're right, and I also think Dave (volvoguy87) has another piece of the puzzle straight - the business community needs to contribute, not just take out.

I was so alarmed ten years ago about what I was seeing that I began asking, "When Corporate America has reduced us all to flipping burgers for minimum wage, who will be able to afford the products and services Corporate America sells?

Our business leaders don't yet see what their grandfathers understood at least dimly; decently well-paid workers are the economic engine that fuels business. The major thing fueled by woefully underpaid workers is tax bills for social services people should be paying for - and able to pay for - themselves.

Corporate America doesn't currently understand that what it is doing now amounts to a long, slow shooting in the foot. There are easy "profits" to be made by closing Stateside factories and outsourcing jobs now, but those phantom profits are not sustainable, because once you've closed your manufacturing operation and laid everyone off, that's the only time you can make money from that particular action. After that, you're actually in thrall to your suppliers, who may - or may not - continue to supply artificially cheap goods. China could put Wal-Mart out of business within six months if it said, "No more Mr. Price Guy."

I won't even get into the arrant stupidity of exporting our technology to nations whose laws do not offer adequate protection for intellectual property like patents.

What is going on in this country is so stupid and insane that I have begun to wonder what on Earth is going to reverse it.

 

[mtn1584]

Anyone remember the Katie Lee scandal?

I think when it was exposed that KathyLee's clothing was made in a Chinese sweat-shop that kind of put the kabbash on their Made in the USA campaign....By the way I am surprised that Kmart has survived this long. Now that the Martha Stewart brand is gone, there is no reason to go there..I prefer Target to WM and KM

 

[mixfinder]

Pride of Ownership

My mother's Dutch. Her family came to Canada after WW I and then came to the USA to file claims for land that was irrigated by WPA projects. The Dutch group as a whole had respect for quality and care of their belongings. They also respected and appreciated the businesses that trusted them and offered credit and service. Almost all of the Dutch homes in the 50's had Frigidaire appliances because they were of good quality and Killingstads offered credit allowing them to pay yearly after harvest. Killingstads also sold small wares so Sunbeam, Revere Ware, Stiffel lamps, Thomasville and Magnavox were used in many homes. Horner's sold Oldsmobile and Pontiac and the largest majority drove Oldsmobiles. Each household was feircely proud of their belongins and you could eat off the floor and part your hair in the gleam of percelain and chrome. In the 60's, I saw it begin to digress as Value Mart opened and Sears offered revolving charge accounts. The pride of ownership decreased when the products they bought failed to live up to the record of their parents. In no time, $10.00 toasters and $50.00 vacuums came and went with the seasons. The old family owned businesses closed as the owners aged in place and a piece of history was lost forever. Households became less and less willing a capable of paying for quality and it has become a way a living. We can blame Mexico, China or India, but the fault lies 100% on Americans who became insistant on cheap.