Ive never understood how Sears got into its present condition...

[Knappo 1307]

Originally Posted by toxicavenger

i use to spank the monkey to the sears catalog

2426A01900000578-0-image-m-25_1418949889240.jpg

[dddrees]

Originally Posted by Etschell

In ability to change. Isnt it obvious? Every large company fails over time other than a bank. Apple and amazon will and people will be shocked. Not me. I know it is all just sandcastle power.

No actually Banks have and do fail. Sometimes they even get bailed out. LOL



Businesses succeed and fail because people succeed and fail. Sometimes it happens because the business fails to adapt and change and sometimes because the people who are running the company are just simply inept. Often large successful companies that fail are no longer being run by those that created the company to begin with. Often it's easier although not easy to get to the top than it is to remain at the top. Henry Ford was extremely successful because he was focused, single minded, and stubborn. But then again he almost bankrupted his extremely successful company at one point because he was single minded and stubborn. The middle class that he in large part help create no longer wanted that cheap plain black tin lizzy. However it wasn't so easy to get Henry Ford to change. As such Ford which was number 1 became number 2 to GM.

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by CRM114

U.S. leads the world/excels in aerospace innovation, engineering, and manufacturing. From airframes/parts large to small, engines (jet, tprop, recip), avionic systems, players like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Gulfstream, Cessna, Piper, Beech, GE/United Technologies/Pratt & Whitney/Rockwell Collins, Honeywell, Scaled Composites, Rockeydyne, etc, etc, etc.

When Richard Branson wants to build a spaceship he comes to the U.S. to do it, not Germany, Japan, the UK, or Switzerland.

the military-industrial complex... you are correct sir.

[Star Ferry]

Hedge funds and private equity have gutted a lot of companies. They make more money in bankruptcy court, or in a quick sale, than they ever could by operating the business properly

[dddrees]

Originally Posted by Star Ferry

Hedge funds and private equity have gutted a lot of companies. They make more money in bankruptcy court, or in a quick sale, than they ever could by operating the business properly

Operating anything takes work.

[jaisonline]

It's sad and frustrated that Sears allowed itself to become. Sure, massive competition (B&M and e-commerce stores) were part of it.


Sears' road to where it's today is for many reason.

Here’s 2 links I found accurate that pretty much explains the downfall from merging with KMart, selling it's strong financial portfolio and credit services, ending the mail catalogs and Fast Eddie Lambert's hedge fund growing Sears' debt by lending it more money to combat his bad decisions.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/11/here...-its-fall.html

https://youtu.be/Qws713t3HBY

[timepieceluvr]

Almost 90% of the Fortune 500 from 50 years ago are no longer in business. Change is inevitable - Progress is optional. See Kodak, Blockbuster, Nokia and yes Sears. Did anyone think a computer company would sell more phones and music than a phone or a music company? Did anyone think a book company would be the #1 retailer? Not me, I was late to the party and own AAPL and AMZN for way more than the smart people.


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[SpeakWithMichael]

Originally Posted by toxicavenger

I use to spank the monkey to the sears catalog

What they call "plus size" today was nothing but delicious MILF goodness ready to fill some baby bottles. Sears had proper taste in that department.

[77T]

Originally Posted by fmacken

Almost 90% of the Fortune 500 from 50 years ago are no longer in business. Change is inevitable - Progress is optional. See Kodak, Blockbuster, Nokia and yes Sears. Did anyone think a computer company would sell more phones and music than a phone or a music company? Did anyone think a book company would be the #1 retailer? Not me, I was late to the party and own AAPL and AMZN for way more than the smart people.


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Bold statement - “Almost 90% of the Fortune 500 from 50 years ago are no longer in business.” Not by a long shot: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines...ll/1969/1.html

But I agree with you that there has been tremendous consolidation in several business segments - Retail among them. And disruption from new entrants like Amazon further raked the coals. As Bezos said, “Your GPM is my growth opportunity.”

So perhaps the Top 250 now own what was the bottom 250 back in 1969. And many new entrants in Tech, Medical and Financial Services have displaced the old “top dogs”

Again, Sears suffered from poor execution of the 3-I’s despite being presciently involved in the early days of e-commerce (read history of Prodigy).


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[Chester01]

Originally Posted by gmh1013

When i was a kid every kid in the USA looked forward to the Sears Christmas Catalog which had 400 plus pages... which was the Amazon of it day in the 50's and 60's plus had the stores in every large and midsize town in the US....plus the very popular Kenmore line which we had in our house as a kid....plus the tools.
Fast forward 50 years.....its all gone.....replaced by Amazon for mail order...Sears remained strong up into the 80's with discover card etc....then feel from grace quickly. How somebody was not able to turn it around 25 years ago is beyond me. The rise of Wal-Mart didn't help but they Ive always been low end stuff. I know its not one thing but a chain of events that cause a company to go under but it seems somebody could have pulled it out.
I was playing my old Silvertone guitar with case amp i got as present in 1969...it play pretty good for a 50 year old cheap Sears guitar....feeling nostalgic.

I remember that catalogue too and got my first watch at perhaps age 4-5 a pocket watch from my grandmother from that catalog. But the reality is everything fades, people, stores, empires, and countries.

[timepieceluvr]

Originally Posted by 77T

Bold statement - “Almost 90% of the Fortune 500 from 50 years ago are no longer in business.” Not by a long shot: http://archive.fortune.com/magazines...ll/1969/1.html

But I agree with you that there has been tremendous consolidation in several business segments - Retail among them. And disruption from new entrants like Amazon further raked the coals. As Bezos said, “Your GPM is my growth opportunity.”

So perhaps the Top 250 now own what was the bottom 250 back in 1969. And many new entrants in Tech, Medical and Financial Services have displaced the old “top dogs”

Again, Sears suffered from poor execution of the 3-I’s despite being presciently involved in the early days of e-commerce (read history of Prodigy).


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Evidently my math was suspect :). 440 of the 500 from 1955’s list are gone.

http://www.aei.org/publication/fortu...ic-prosperity/


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[77T]

Originally Posted by fmacken

Evidently my math was suspect :). 440 of the 500 from 1955’s list are gone.

Doesn’t surprise me...

I do know that 100% of the 60 y.o. people in 1955 are also gone, too.

Sears was 60 years old in 1955 and rode a wave of post-war consumer spending along with an upward shift of disposable income. Coupled with Baby Boomers embracing a mantra of replacement vs. maintenance, retailers amped up “new & improved” vs. lifetime ownership of consumer durables.


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[toxicavenger]

Originally Posted by SpeakWithMichael

What they call "plus size" today was nothing but delicious MILF goodness ready to fill some baby bottles. Sears had proper taste in that department.

so did monkey wards

[tyler1980]

Originally Posted by fmacken

Evidently my math was suspect :). 440 of the 500 from 1955’s list are gone.

http://www.aei.org/publication/fortu...ic-prosperity/


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a lot have been acquired as big companies just get bigger. Same as with airlines. They just swallow up other airlines. Its not like Continental, US airways, Northwest etc are really gone. they are part of other airlines.

Saying they are gone would lead someone to think they all went out of business/disappeared. A lot could have stayed profitable too, but with a buyout on the table and shareholders to enrich sometimes the cash out wins. Plus companies have to meet growth targets and its easier to buy growth. Growth is everything. Look at Apple. They are still making money hand over fist but everyone panics because growth has slowed. They still are profitable and still are making more money than last year.

[dtwer]

Read How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins. It takes a series of missteps for a corporation to fail.

[CRM114]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

the military-industrial complex... you are correct sir.

Does that mean Caterpillar became the world's #1 manufacturer of heavy equipment because the Seabees bought some of their bulldozers? I know my Zippos are USA-made so perhaps there's some link to the MIC as well. Same goes for the Sub Zero fridge and Viking range....obviously DARPA project spin-offs, much like the internet.

[jaisonline]

Hopefully, Fast Eddie Lampert will get what's owed to him. I don't see how the SEC isn't investigating him. If his actions weren't illegal, they were definitely close. Sure seems like conflict of interest myself. He was heading up 2 companies at once and uses one to clean out the other for revenue (essentially, he was borrowing w/ interest against himself).



https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...ts/3507382002/

"Former Sears company sues ex-CEO Lampert, Treasury's Steven Mnuchin over 'asset stripping'"

The company that formerly owned Sears and Kmart has sued its ex-CEO, chairman and investor Eddie Lampert and his hedge fund over accusations that they illegally stripped the retailer of assets in the years leading up to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Lampert faces accusations that while he was leading the company, he directed the transfer of billions of dollars in assets "for grossly inadequate consideration or no consideration at all" for the benefit of himself, his hedge fund ESL Investments and others.

The lawsuit, filed by Sears Holdings, targets about two dozen defendants, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was previously an investor and board member of ESL and has been friends with Lampert for decades.

Lampert, in February, struck a last-minute deal to buy Sears assets out of bankruptcy and keep about 400 stores open under a new entity called Transform Holdco.

But the company that sold the assets to him – Sears Holdings – is still trying to deal with angry creditors who say that Lampert exploited them and profited from the retailer's descent.

ESL said in a statement that it "vigorously disputes" the lawsuit, calling them "baseless allegations and fanciful claims" that "are misleading or just flat wrong."

Eddie Lampert's history: Hedge fund got hundreds of millions from Sears as it declined : https://www.usatoday.com/story/money...art/638218002/


Sears Holdings, of which Lampert was formerly CEO,chairman and the largest investor, alleged that Lampert's moves "were unmistakably intended to hinder, delay and defraud creditors and/or occurred when the Company was insolvent and had insufficient capital to continue its operations and to repay its billions of dollars in debt."

Had those things not occurred, "Sears would have had billions of dollars more to pay its third-party creditors today and would not have endured the amount of disruption, expense and job losses resulting from its recent bankruptcy filing," the lawsuit alleges.

The suit also alleges that Lampert "knew the Company had no plan to return to profitability" and worked "to create a false record to cover up their asset stripping, at Lampert’s personal direction," including "bad-faith predictions" of a "dramatic turn-around."

ESL said that under Lampert's leadership, Sears used more than $2 billion in proceeds from asset sales to reduce the retailer's debt and fund its operations. The hedge fund said it did not receive favorable treatment, adding that the Sears board and independent directors authorized the deals in question.

"We are confident that the processes we followed for each of these transactions are unimpeachable," ESL said.

Bank of Mom and Dad: Millennials still lean on parents for money, but want financial independence

It was not immediately clear whether the lawsuit could disrupt the operations of the so-called New Sears.

A representative of Transform Holdco was not immediately available. The Treasury Department's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment..

Lampert came under fire over the past several years for his leadership, such a 2015 decision to sell certain valuable stores to a real estate investment trust called Seritage Growth Properties, where he had a significant ownership stake. Seritage is also targeted in the lawsuit.

Lampert also faced scrutiny for loading Sears up with debt from his hedge fund.

USA TODAY reported in June 2018 that Lampert and ESL were collecting at least $200 million annually in debt payments from Sears and that Lampert had personally directed the company not to reinvest in major store upgrades.

Sears closed more than 3,500 stores and cut about 250,000 jobs in roughly the last 15 years as sales cratered, leading to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in October.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.

[Fat_ninja]

Originally Posted by tyler1980

flash back to my 13 year old self. Sears catalogue was a big deal or maybe it was JCPenney. And you didn't have to hide it.

Originally Posted by brandrea

It’s because of the internet ...

I can look at all bras without the catalogue

Originally Posted by toxicavenger

I use to spank the monkey to the sears catalog

Yall...silly. Sears catalogue...standards people!

[BigBlue1]

Are you kidding me ?
Look around.
Look how much has changed in the last 30 years.
The internet is doing more harm than good I’m afraid.
Not just on a commerce level either.

[crew]

I live in Rochester NY, the home of Eastman Kodak. The fall of Sears reminds me much of the fall of Kodak. They were both companies that led their industry for many decades. They both failed to recognize the shift in consumer’s desires and the potential power of new competition.
Kodak employed over 60,000 people in Rochester at its height. Today that number is very close to only 1,000. Kodak management was fat dumb and happy with the status quo. Kodak was a leader in the inventing of digital technology. Upper management thought, and rightly so, that digital would be bad for the film business. So they sat on their digital technology to save film. Unfortunately their competition moved forward with it and ate Kodak’s lunch.
All companies need to continually reinvent themselves or risk getting left behind.

[brandrea]

Originally Posted by crew

I live in Rochester NY, the home of Eastman Kodak. The fall of Sears reminds me much of the fall of Kodak. They were both companies that led their industry for many decades. They both failed to recognize the shift in consumer’s desires and the potential power of new competition.
Kodak employed over 60,000 people in Rochester at its height. Today that number is very close to only 1,000. Kodak management was fat dumb and happy with the status quo. Kodak was a leader in the inventing of digital technology. Upper management thought, and rightly so, that digital would be bad for the film business. So they sat on their digital technology to save film. Unfortunately their competition moved forward with it and ate Kodak’s lunch.
All companies need to continually reinvent themselves or risk getting left behind.

As an aside ... and sorry to highjack the OP’s thread ... did or has Rochester recovered?

[crew]

Originally Posted by brandrea

As an aside ... and sorry to highjack the OP’s thread ... did or has Rochester recovered?

Rochester has reinvented itself. We lost some talent but we survived. We are no longer as “smug” (there was a book called Smug Town USA about Rochester) as we used to be nor as white collar as we once were.
Things are ok as we get used to our new normal. Thanks for asking.

[yoniman]

Originally Posted by toxicavenger

I use to spank the monkey to the sears catalog

The photography was really good too. The models were exceedingly inspiring. Pre- Photoshop too.

Cheers

[tmmii]

A corporate raid by someone who didn’t know how to do it efficiently.

[TheVTCGuy]

I used to love walking in to Sears with my dad when I was a kid in the 60s (anyone remember the tv vacuum tube tester?). Last time I walked in to one years ago it was such a joke. Untrained and did-interested sales people, lackluster inventory. Very sad IMHO.

[Bigblu10]

Originally Posted by crew

I live in Rochester NY, the home of Eastman Kodak. The fall of Sears reminds me much of the fall of Kodak. They were both companies that led their industry for many decades. They both failed to recognize the shift in consumer’s desires and the potential power of new competition.
Kodak employed over 60,000 people in Rochester at its height. Today that number is very close to only 1,000. Kodak management was fat dumb and happy with the status quo. Kodak was a leader in the inventing of digital technology. Upper management thought, and rightly so, that digital would be bad for the film business. So they sat on their digital technology to save film. Unfortunately their competition moved forward with it and ate Kodak’s lunch.
All companies need to continually reinvent themselves or risk getting left behind.

Rochester, Buffalo, Binghamton, Syracuse and Albany are merely a shadow of the once great manufacturing hubs they once were. Decades of onerous business taxes and property taxes (spelled Cuomo) have caused a mass exodus of business and population to leave NYS in favor of states that promote business with low taxes, higher wages and more favorable weather. My mother has a house for sale there. 5K/year in taxes. She has a house in MB, South Carolina. 500/year in taxes. Warm weather in SC, close proximity to Myrtle and Surfside beaches, low taxes, an economically vibrant area and no need to ever own a snow shovel/blower and the decision is an absolute no brainer. Bye bye N.Y.S. Thanks for nuthun'!