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Sears and Kmart advertising
- Thread starter frankberry
- Start date
Sears trouble goes back to at least 2000. They started their horrible website that never worked right. They also started doing gimmicks in their stores to try to compete with the bigger boxes but it just turned customers away. Once they gave up the catalog was the true beginning of the end. They had the Amazon playbook built in if they had the foresight to turn that into the website business they could have cut off Amazon at the pass.
If you're talking about the stores to be closed early next year, liquidation sales always draw crowds, no other promotion needed but the magic words "Going out of business." If you're talking about the stores that have already closed, har-de-har-har.
There are plenty of stores that are not closing and are just ghost towns.
Give me a reason to go. Not just Sears, but Penny's or even Macy's.
Even stores that aren't bankrupt need to reinvent themselves because people like me need a reason to get up and go out and spend money at their stores. Otherwise, we'll just stay home and shop online. Home in nice. I like it here. I've made it so everything I need is here. Why should I leave to shop?
WalMart is pushing price. They say they're cheaper, and quite often they are. That's a reason to shop there. How about everyone else?
Macy's just closed a lot of stores - they are not doing well. For a few years, they chased value shoppers with some lower prices, then just stopped - figuring that they could attract enough shoppers to pay their regular high prices. Even when my local Macy's stores did their closing sales - their "60% off" prices were still higher than Walmart and Target. It was a joke.
I'm increasingly shopping online as well, though I do price compare and will travel to a store for lower prices. Costco rocks, and they mark up a lot of products for online sales, so you actually save money by going to their brick and mortar stores.
Right, that's why I specifically addressed my comment to stores holding liquidation sales. They still draw crowds, at least until all the good stuff is gone. You're right, the stores that are still hanging on aren't doing much business, nor are any of the specialty stores in the malls. The food courts may be a thing of the past in a year or two, if the sad state of the local mall's court is to be believed -- five vacancies at the moment, only six food places open. Of course, no one goes to the mall just to eat, at least not since teenagers stopped going there after school to hang out.
Macy's introduced something called "Back Stage" in some of their stores a few years ago - in an attempt to compete with off-price retailers such as the TJX Stores (TJ MAXX, Marshall's, Home Goods), Ross Dress for Less, Burlington, etc. Trouble is most of the stuff is still cheaper at the off-price retailers.
And Norstrom has Norstrom Rack and Sak's 5th Avenue has Sak's Off 5th. Both are supposed to be cheaper versions of the main name plates. Let me tell you something. I went to Sak's Off 5th over the summer. They opened in a portion of the former Sears in West Hartford and it was mind blowing how expensive stuff was. And I felt very self-conscious in the store in my cheap clothes from Walmart (shorts, t-shirt, sneakers, Yankees hat, and fake diamond stud earrings). LOL.
It's been a while since I've seen a Sears ad in the paper, but it seems like their ads are always pushing appliances and mattresses. The ads for JCP and Macy's have a bit of everything in them.
And Norstrom has Norstrom Rack and Sak's 5th Avenue has Sak's Off 5th. Both are supposed to be cheaper versions of the main name plates. Let me tell you something. I went to Sak's Off 5th over the summer. They opened in a portion of the former Sears in West Hartford and it was mind blowing how expensive stuff was. And I felt very self-conscious in the store in my cheap clothes from Walmart (shorts, t-shirt, sneakers, Yankees hat, and fake diamond stud earrings). LOL.
It's been a while since I've seen a Sears ad in the paper, but it seems like their ads are always pushing appliances and mattresses. The ads for JCP and Macy's have a bit of everything in them.
https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Kmart-closing-72-stores-3143509.php
Even as far back as 1995 Kmart was getting into trouble. In this 1995 article Kmart was in trouble and closed their Norcal stores. I know that the Vallejo, CA Kmart old spot became Seafood City Supermarket and they took Kmart's old spot. But some of the abandoned Kmart examples I used is only because Solano County, CA is in close proximity to the Wine Country, San Francisco, and Sacramento. The abandoned Kmarts and Sears in my area were replaced easily. I seen videos of people taking about how the abandoned Kmarts in their areas fell apart after decades and no longer meet any building codes.
Even as far back as 1995 Kmart was getting into trouble. In this 1995 article Kmart was in trouble and closed their Norcal stores. I know that the Vallejo, CA Kmart old spot became Seafood City Supermarket and they took Kmart's old spot. But some of the abandoned Kmart examples I used is only because Solano County, CA is in close proximity to the Wine Country, San Francisco, and Sacramento. The abandoned Kmarts and Sears in my area were replaced easily. I seen videos of people taking about how the abandoned Kmarts in their areas fell apart after decades and no longer meet any building codes.
This is why it baffles me that Sears and JC Penney would shut down their catalog businesses. Those were huge selling points back in the day. Why they didn't turn that into the online sales division just doesn't make sense. Did they underestimate the online sales boom that badly?
They had a lot invested in local stores. I'm now seeing Amazon heading in the same direction with local stores thanks to the Whole Foods purchase.
The difference is the grocery business is still pretty healthy for now. They're using the stores as distribution points.
Amazon also has AWS.
Penney's mostly did. They kept the Catalog going into the 2010s, long after its web store was up and running -- they launched jcp.com in the late 90s online boom.
Sears killed the Catalog in the mid-90s, and never had a strong eCommerce presence.
Sure, they have lots of things. They not only sell products but they manufacture their own products like Fire Kindle and Echo.
But at one time, Sears had a lot of its own products too. Not so much any more.
Yes, I remember the massive catalogs at JCPenney just 5-6 years ago. They can be quite amusing to read, especially the vintage ones. I have a 1977 Sears catalog in very good condition, and it's fun to look through the 1000+ pages of items for sale, and laugh at how cheap the prices were.
I grew up in Bristol, Connecticut. In the shopping center with Bradlee's (a long defunct New England based department store) and Stop and Shop Supermarket there was a small store front called the JC Penney Catalog store where you could go and pick up merchandise you ordered from their catalog. I don't remember what year they closed. I'm thinking late 90s.
Bradlees and Stop & Shop were owned by the same company back in the '70s. My dad worked for Bradlees briefly. Stop & Shop wound up in Dutch hands and Bradlees just faded away.
Yes - many executives of that time frame were old-school, and weren't really bringing in - and listening to - some of the younger managers who were savvy on these things.
When you've done something the same way for so long, it really is hard to get a grip on a paradigm shift in retail, based on a person sitting at home (or at work, or...) and clicking a few buttons to get something.
Yes, they and others, had catalogue sales, so they already had a clientele used to waiting a few days to get their purchases.
As others have mentioned, they had such a large retail footprint that it was impossible to ignore.
Blame management of the past and of today; Sears will die in 2019.
Maybe the Sears you knew, but the brand will live, just as the Circuit City and Radio Shack brands live.
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