Sears and Kmart advertising

[FreddyE1977]

But yes, for the moment, WalMart seems to have won the battle. But I can't help but think the clock is ticking for them too.

Walmart was smart enough to up their e-commerce game early on. Their online presence is actually pretty impressive. They can get stuff delivered to you quickly, and if you spend more than $35 the shipping is free. That should keep them competitive with Amazon for quite a long time.

Plus Walmart is a bigtime grocer as well. Kmart tried to enter that realm with the Super Kmart stores but failed.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Another factor that is helping Walmart is being able to order online and pick up in the store. One problem that I would imagine some people have with ordering on Amazon is not wanting to order something and have it delivered when nobody is home and face the chance of it being stolen. I know Amazon has lockers available in some areas for pickup but there aren't as many of them as there are Walmart stores in an area.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

Kmart and Sears are two anchors collectively and inextricably sinking each other. Kmart alone didn’t bring Sears down; it was well down the path and while the particulars might be different, the outcome with no merger almost certainly would have been the same for all practical purposes. Both chains were headed for the big going out of business sale in the sky.

Both had legacy value once upon a time, but that and five bucks will get you a coffee at Starbucks today. They both fell behind peers who beat them from all angles. So it goes.

 

[kevtronics]

And being taken over by a vulture capitalist who enriched himself while refusing to invest in the company he was in charge of certainly didn't help. The same thing happened to Toys 'R' Us.

https://theweek.com/articles/801927/how-vulture-capitalists-ate-sears

 

[davideduardo]

And being taken over by a vulture capitalist who enriched himself while refusing to invest in the company he was in charge of certainly didn't help. The same thing happened to Toys 'R' Us.

While some of the issues of Sears and KMart are management related, the real issue is the transformation of retail. Sears was squeezed between value-conscious and much larger WalMart stores and higher end options like Macys. KMart was suffocated by WalMart which had better and bigger stores and replaced by options like Target and Kohls.

Deeper analysis also reveals that Sears dominance in white goods was eroded by the fact that those products now last many, many years longer than before and are thus lower volume, low profit items.

JC Penney is going through the same problems, and while not in imminent danger, has an unlikely future for the same "retail revolution" issues. Anything I might once have wanted at Sears, Penney or KMart I can now get online without the traffic, the parking, and the probability of not finding my size, color, style or desired price at retail.

 

[davideduardo]

Walmart was smart enough to up their e-commerce game early on. Their online presence is actually pretty impressive. They can get stuff delivered to you quickly, and if you spend more than $35 the shipping is free. That should keep them competitive with Amazon for quite a long time.

I get one-day delivery on those $35 and over purchases, and we make a list and fill it at least once a month from WalMart. I have many other items on Amazon's Subscribe and Save, and get them automatically at scheduled intervals.

The media related item here is that neither Amazon nor WalMart spends much on local media, particularly radio. And this is why so many smaller market stations are failing now.

 

[Kelly A]

The media related item here is that neither Amazon nor WalMart spends much on local media, particularly radio. And this is why so many smaller market stations are failing now.

My experience is they spend zero in small or rural markets.

Many of the local auto and furniture dealers have chosen to spend on digital advertising alone because (as they claim) they get more volume and reach per dollar. I've tried to educate advertisers about ROAS, that buying ads on Facebook may be cheap, but even they admit, they're not seeing the direct conversion to revenue as they did with radio. Even still, local and regional advertisers want to spend more on digital ads because 'it's the future'. Never mind they aren't seeing traffic from it, that's where the Millennial's are dammit!

Just one of the reasons I took the opportunity to sell one of my stations to a religious broadcaster when I had the chance. Some of the local businesses were pissed, but I pointed out that local radio can't survive unless they actually buy spots, oh, and pay their bill.

 

[Will_H_69_9]

My experience is they spend zero in small or rural markets.

Many of the local auto and furniture dealers have chosen to spend on digital advertising alone because (as they claim) they get more volume and reach per dollar. I've tried to educate advertisers about ROAS, that buying ads on Facebook may be cheap, but even they admit, they're not seeing the direct conversion to revenue as they did with radio. Even still, local and regional advertisers want to spend more on digital ads because 'it's the future'. Never mind they aren't seeing traffic from it, that's where the Millennial's are dammit!

Just one of the reasons I took the opportunity to sell one of my stations to a religious broadcaster when I had the chance. Some of the local businesses were pissed, but I pointed out that local radio can't survive unless they actually buy spots, oh, and pay their bill.

agree, the corporate radio industry has killed local radio outright, but in my area, which in my area of Hunt County, Texas there are 3 stations in Hunt County that serve the Paris/Greenville/Sulphur Springs, TX area, plus my home county is also in fringe areas of the Dallas-Fort Worth area too, which means i also get the DFW stations. 2 of thos stations are based out of Greenville, which is KIKT 93.5 The Coyote and KGVL 1400 AM (they also got a FM Translator on 105.9, K290AP out of Commerce). and the 3rd is a NPR station owned by Texas A&M University-Commerce, KETR 88.9 out of Commerce.

now back on the topic of K-Mart, my area did had a K-Mart in Greenville, but it closed down in 2003 after K Mart filed for Bankruptcy the first time, i think K-Mart was pulling out of North Texas around that time where almost all of the North Texas/DFW K-Mart stores closed down due to under-performing in cities where Walmart killed their business. the K-Mart in Greenville remained vacant fro 2003 to 2009 when Atwoods Ranch and Home open a location in Greenville in the old K-Mart store and is doing well as Hunt County is consider a mostly rural county outside of Greenville and Commerce and Quinlan.

 

[TheBigA]

agree, the corporate radio industry has killed local radio outright, but in my area, which in my area of Hunt County, Texas there are 3 stations in Hunt County that serve the Paris/Greenville/Sulphur Springs, TX

But if your area can't support retail, where is the money to support local radio? That's the point. We're talking about how big box corporate retail killed local retail, and the death of local retail killed local radio. Corporate radio has nothing to do with it. They invested money in buying those radio stations with the hope that the local marketplace would stay healthy. When it didn't, they had no choice.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

My experience is they spend zero in small or rural markets.

I've been in small market radio for about 20 years out of my career. Wal-Mart has spent $0 in all those years directly with my employers. We've had some Wal-Mart ads on our air from barter programming. But honestly, it's pretty pointless for Wal-Mart to advertise in most of the smaller towns they operate in, as they have close to a monopoly.

 

[JRH]

I've been in small market radio for about 20 years out of my career. Wal-Mart has spent $0 in all those years directly with my employers. We've had some Wal-Mart ads on our air from barter programming. But honestly, it's pretty pointless for Wal-Mart to advertise in most of the smaller towns they operate in, as they have close to a monopoly.

I think twice we got some money out of the local Wal-Mart. One was for some type of easter egg remote we did in their parking lot. The other was to promote some singer from Branson who was appearing in the store. Our GM thought this would be a way to get some money out of them. They spent maybe $200, and the Wal-Mart manager had to get approval from a bunch of higher-ups to even spend that. We did do a remote when they opened their new Super Wal-Mart, but it was paid for by either Coke or Pepsi.

Not a lot of retail advertising in small market radio these days, but there still seems to be some dollars for service businesses, healthcare, car dealers, help wanted, etc.

 

[seatownmedia]

Has anyone heard a radio ad for Amazon lately, or ever? That is because they don't need to. Their business plan is so successful that radio is unimportant. This does not bode well for radio advertising, except on a micro local level. More evidence the retail arena has done a complete 180 from just 15 years ago. However, what I hear today on radio is a lot of auto part stores, plus job sites, like Indeed and Zip Recruiter. Not sure why these still populate radio airwaves so heavily.

 

[davideduardo]

Has anyone heard a radio ad for Amazon lately, or ever? That is because they don't need to. Their business plan is so successful that radio is unimportant. This does not bode well for radio advertising, except on a micro local level. More evidence the retail arena has done a complete 180 from just 15 years ago. However, what I hear today on radio is a lot of auto part stores, plus job sites, like Indeed and Zip Recruiter. Not sure why these still populate radio airwaves so heavily.

I see Amazon ads all the time... they are inserted into pages I view on the Internet, pop up with price comparisons on competitive websites and I get emails constantly with offers of things related to past purchases. I also find them often at the top of searches when looking for a product of nearly any kind, from detergent to DDR4 Memory.

They are an Internet company, so the internet is where most of their ads will be found. But I see quite a few product specific ads on TV, particularly for the hardware devices.

 

[seatownmedia]

So, radio? No. That was my point related to this thread. But as TV goes, yes there is indirect messaging, I admit.