User Panel
Posted: 11/24/2014 6:11:49 AM EST
both got started by mail order catalogs, essentially doing the same damn thing that Amazon does now
how is it that Amazon, which is entirely mail order is doing great, these two are in a death spiral? |
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It's called being late to the party.
Shipping tool production to China didn't help.
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The only thing Sears has that I want are Die Hard Platinum batteries for my trucks.
After they exported their tools to be made in China they went to shit. My break rate on the few that I ended up with was 10x what I ever had prior to that. Their pricing isn't competitive either. The last thing that I bought from Sears was a scratched demo model stove for 50% off MSRP. The big scratches were on the side, and the light scratches on the stainless front were easy to blend. The store price for a new model though was $100 higher than Home Depot. The reason Amazon is doing so well is that they adapted to the internet fast. Nobody wants to look at a catalog, fill out a form, mail it in and hope that everything worked out well. 5 minutes on Amazon can do a lot of shopping without even leaving your bed. |
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both got started by mail order catalogs, essentially doing the same damn thing that Amazon does now how is it that Amazon, which is entirely mail order is doing great, these two are in a death spiral? View Quote Merchandising is stale. |
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Quoted: If you recommend reading "Who Moved My Cheese?" I will hunt you down!!! View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: They didn't embrace change. If you recommend reading "Who Moved My Cheese?" I will hunt you down!!! |
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Quoted: Who said Amazon is doing well? View Quote Then there's that whole being the largest online retailer in the entire world by a gigantic margin. That helps too. Or... have you not been following them since the post 2000 crash? |
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We have both JC Penney and Sears in our mall. Or had. Sears was open about 10 years, max and closed up. Everything was way, way overpriced. They couldn't even beat local appliance stores prices on appliances. Lowes, Home Depot, and Best Buy straight up destroyed them as far as anything with a plug.
Everytime I walk into the JC Penneys, I feel like I've contracted hepatitis or something. It's dirty, it stinks, and you'd be hard pressed to find anything worth buying, and if you did it's even harder to find someone working a register. |
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Bad management, bad hiring practices, bad real estate purchases for brick-and-mortar store locations, lousy marketing, poor choice of merchandise, high prices.
As someone asked, the real question is why they are STILL in business. For some reason, they opted to basically become women's clothing stores about 20 years ago. |
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Quoted: Bad management, bad hiring practices, bad real estate purchases for brick-and-mortar store locations, lousy marketing, poor choice of merchandise, high prices. As someone asked, the real question is why they are STILL in business. For some reason, they opted to basically become women's clothing stores about 20 years ago. View Quote women do most of the shopping
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Just a theory, but it seems that in almost every case, once a company stops having a decent sporting good department, they begin to die off.This has been the case with sears, shopko, kmart, and even alot of the local hardware stores.Maybe a coincidence, but if the men have no reason to go to the stores, they will steer their wives elseware.
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Has Amazon turned a profit, yet? View Quote nope, still leaking cash like a sieve. Look at sears and penny's and you will see some mismanagement and HUGE UNION Benefits and legacy benefits they've saddled themselves with leading to the down fall of the profit line.. Labor is the biggest expense any company runs and if the pricing isn't adjusted accordingly, they fail.. one big giant goochie bird, flying round and round in tighter circles until it flies up its own asshole.....raise the pay rate, raise the cost of goods sold, the pay rate becomes too low for the "working man" cost of living and he demands another pay raise and the cycle repeats, then demands the employer take care of them for life. then demands their medical expences are paid by the employer decades after they cease to be employable etc.. |
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Junk products priced too high, with too much overhead.
They missed a epic oppertunity to beat amazon in the shippping dept. They could have done free shipping using their already developed suppy chain and a simple in town delivery only requiering a few fuel efficent cars.with online order and a optional instore pickup. Not to mention often cutting a 3rd party shipper out of the picture. Otherwise if you orderd o line from them, there was processing time and ups delivery time. People dont wanna wait for their shit no more.money that went to 3rd party shipper could have easily paid for the inhouse delivery. They could have reduced store size, and employee overhead, and used the space as a distrobution center. |
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I can speak for my experiences with Sears over the last 20 years.
I have two experiences where it was all but impossible to buy what I wanted and they had. Customer service was non existent. My two stories are way too long, but the short of it is I will no longer step into their stores or buy from them online, period. |
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The local Sears seems OK. Prices aren't noticeably different from anywhere else, plenty of stock & selection, lots of staff, clean & well maintained, etc. Their electronics selection is crap, but beyond that there's nothing that would make it seem like they're on the verge of collapse.
Only issue I have with them is that there's a huge disconnect between their physical stores and their online store. Often I'll be looking for something, find it on Sears.ca, but if I show up at their physical store looking for it staff looks at me like I have three heads. Seems to me that being able to look at something or try it on is the major advantage of having physical stores, and they're missing out on it if they constantly have "web only" items. They at least ought to have demo items if they're not going to keep local stock of every item they sell. |
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sears fucked up when they stopped setting up the holiday toy displays in the basement
when I make damcv62's contact list I will remake, to the last detail, a sears toy display in my basement circa 1977 |
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Sears and JCP in addition to horrible mismanagement have hundreds of millions per year in retirement pension debt obligations to meet before they sell a single item. That kind of overhead kills companies fast.
Amazon does not have that. Sears and JCP have high retail overhead that Amazon does not. |
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It is ture that 5 minutes on Amazon can do a lot of shopping.
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High brick and mortar costs, plus too strong of an association with shopping malls.
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they won't be if an internet tax rate is adapted. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Who said Amazon is doing well? they won't be if an internet tax rate is adapted. Doesnt matter to me. I stopped using them and canceled my prime when they said they are opening a place in IL. Now with taxes attached I have no need for amazon. |
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Everything in them costs twice what it does online, and then you have to suffer though checking out with some pissed off 50 something lady working the register.
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When Sears was bought by a company that had went bankrupt (Kmart) the end result was guaranteed. The only reason Kmart had the money to buy Sears was because of all the closed stores they sold.
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When Sears was bought by a company that had went bankrupt (Kmart) the end result was guaranteed. The only reason Kmart had the money to buy Sears was because of all the closed stores they sold. View Quote That and they screwed all current employees. I personally lost thousands on their forced stock sale. I think we were forced to take $0.15 a share at the time. I would have rather held it and waited for a recovery but noooooooooooo. |
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At one time decades ago, a homeowner could buy a life-time tool at Sears. Or a decent appliance. Or near anything else.
They they changed. In order to make a few more cents, they turned Craftsman into a crap brand. Lowest dollar everything. And they started trying to make another buck by stupid crap like selling a "protection plan". In other words, lets make a product so shitty even we, Sears, know its crap, and then sell insurance to cover it when it breaks. Then, instead of focusing on being a retailer, they got side tracked trying to be a finance company. They wasted time and energy with this discover card bullshit. Instead of trying to be a dent retailer, all their energy has been focused on signing up new credit card customers.... Well, after a while, no one needs a new card when there is nothing in the store worth buying., In other words, they haven't really been a focused retailer for several decades. Their marketing plan was basically 'Lets sell low quality tools and crap, at inflated prices, in high cost-per-square foot retail environments". |
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they won't be if an internet tax rate is adapted. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Who said Amazon is doing well? they won't be if an internet tax rate is adapted. Amazon WANTS internet tax.. LINK |
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Everytime I go into a Sears (to check out the tool section because I am otherwise bored to tears), I swear I will see a tumbleweed blow across the aisle any moment. One of their biggest problems is that the people who still shop a brick and mortar shops are usually looking for fancy names and designers to display. Quality and price are not even a concern for these people, especially since they have so much more disposable income follow O-care. Sears missed so many opportunities their tale should be required reading for anyone planning on opening a business.
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They were the only players for decades, but when real competition came along, they just sat and withered away - or worse let themselves rot and prices/quality went in the wrong direction.
Amazon is going to suffer the same fate, but much faster. They're not profitable, even with their dominance. What's that say? They've not got long to make it, and I doubt they will. I already see problems with their business model that will not be cured by just sticking around. It's the nature of big, successful businesses to lose their way.
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Who said Amazon is doing well? they won't be if an internet tax rate is adapted. Amazon WANTS internet tax.. LINK Big companies want the internet tax because they can absorb the cost and stamp out smaller competition. Amazon already pays sales tax in most states because they have a physical presence in them. An internet sales tax is good for the big guy, bad for the little guy. That being said, Amazon is fast and convenient and I buy a shit load of stuff off them. Their 5 dollar movie selection with prime shipping is outstanding. |
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Sears still has a use for tools- just not Craftsman Chicom tools. I've picked up Channellock tools for prices close to Amazon and Knipex tools way below Amazon's prices.
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Doesnt matter to me. I stopped using them and canceled my prime when they said they are opening a place in IL. Now with taxes attached I have no need for amazon. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Who said Amazon is doing well? they won't be if an internet tax rate is adapted. Doesnt matter to me. I stopped using them and canceled my prime when they said they are opening a place in IL. Now with taxes attached I have no need for amazon. Georgia had an Amazon tax go into effect this year. It's been significantly lower than normal sales tax would be, however, so that's not enough of a reason for me to stop using them. Looking at my last few orders, I paid $0.99 tax on a $53.44 order of 3 things from the same company, no tax on a lot of orders, and $0.68 tax on a $10.39 order of one item. |
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The one at the local mall has turned into a third world emporium. The clothes are in the floor. Looked at boots and the inventory on display was misboxed, scattered and un organized. Looked at t-shirts which were the same. The employees were standing together talking about "Sheniquia be all hot and dindu nuffin..."
My grandad retired from Sears back in the 60's when I was a young kid. They made everything then and it was all good. A Sears tractor was a Sears tractor and not some relabeled Murray crap. Same with power tools, chainsaws etc... Not so anymore.
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Quoted:
If you recommend reading "Who Moved My Cheese?" I will hunt you down!!! View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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They didn't embrace change. If you recommend reading "Who Moved My Cheese?" I will hunt you down!!! That is a book for people with the intelligence of mice. F'real, if you can't think for yourself, and your IQ is barely cracking room temperature... read away! We had a Gunnery Sergeant who loved it. But what was hilarious is that he had the classic Gunny Speech Impediment. His main form of communication was a complex language of grunts and intimidating facial contortions. So he's talking to us, and he goes, "Hey, good to go, alright, ooh rah, y'all need motivation, understand, good to go, so you need to read this book, ooh rah, it's called Hoo-moo Mahcheez." We're all like , "Sorry, Gunny, what did you say the book was called?" "Hoomoo Mahcheez, ya understand? It's about rats." It took a few back-and-forths, and then someone said, "Oh, Who Moved My Cheese?" "Yeah, that's what I said, ooh rah, Hoomoo Macheez!" That man was so angry all the time. |
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