New Sears Hometown opening in old Kmart location:
https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/south/news/cudahy/2021/10/08/sears-hometown-store-open-former-cudahy-kmart-building/6000603001/
Looks like there will continue to be 100's of Sears Hometowns going forward, and occasionally, even some new ones like this.
It's hard to have primary journalistic sources on Sears since PR is on gag order because they'll simply write yet another article about how Eddie is the biggest failure in the history of the universe and he hates that.
Didn't claim there was any "excitement" here. This is a Sears news site, so we report Sears news. There is an opening of a Sears store, thus it's reported here. News isn't always exciting, but, as journalists, we still report it.
I've worked for a company selling franchises. Corporate sells franchises for a sizeable amount of money. The owner can then do business under that name, but has to abide by the rules of corporate. Unfortunately, if they can't make a go of it, they lose their investment.....corporate gives no refunds. My point is, if you're buying into a franchise for a good reputable company, then great. "Sears" is no longer seen as reputable (if known at all), they no longer have exclusive brand names, and Transformco obviously isn't any retail expert so probably have contractual agreements in place that don't work well, and offer little to support to the investor once they have their money. I honestly couldn't care less about the "Sears" name living on or not; haven't been near one in years.......don't see the excitement here one way or the other regarding a new hometown store either.
Are you the same "pump & dump" queen that has been promoting this stuff for years?
@1nar+1ddVj4Sz I don't care if my mother owns those stores. All Hampton Inn hotels are franchised too, but they ate still considered Hampton freaking Inns. Franchised Wendys are still Wendys too. Frostys!
"We" didn't have anything. Sears Hometowns are a type of Sears, just like Bud Light is a type of Budweiser. Nothing to do with nostalgia, it is, instead, about statistics and math. The Sears Hometown stores count in the store counts of overall "Sears" small-format stores. A Whopper Jr, is still a kind of Whopper, after all.
Sears Hometowns count as Sears, and they are not going away any Time soon. More seem to be opening up. So again, what there will be going forward, is 1. online, 2. Hometowns, & 3. Guam and MAYBE USVI.
And it's not a "new franchised venture". That concept has been around for Decades. He is doing the right thing, by closing, large, unwieldy, full-line stores, and replacing them with a more nimble, small-footprint concept. Makes sense. In this digital age, you don't need large B&M locations. The small formats, are basically, a defacto place to pick up digital/online orders. That's all we need in 2021, as most people aren't interested in malls/stores, as destinations unto themselves in this Day & age. It's not 1990, where we think, let's all bring the kids to the mall, for a Day trip, and then buy them Ice cream at the food court. Most people ship almost exclusively online now. B&M shopping is almost history, and in 50 Years, it will be just about totally history. They future of shopping is online. And then 200 Years from now, our great great great grandkids will be laughing at this concept called "stores". Everything will be ordered online, and probably delivered by drones or something. We have no idea, but it will be extremely different from what we have now. We won't be around, but our descendants will. Will be extremely different.
Seriously, what's the the big debate whether the Sears name is on something or not. Transformco bought the Sears name, and is getting rid of the old Sears department stores and Kmarts as we once knew them, and is using the name for a new franchise venture. Someone bought Montgomery Wards name, and is running an online business under it on the internet. So what? If walking under a "Sears" sign to buy your mattress at a "hometown store" resurrects your childhood memories, great; but face it, what we once had is gone.
Yes, the goal of franchises is to sell a business to an individual at a big price. The corporation takes in money by doing this. If the business fails, the corporation isn't out anything.........the person who invested in one loses all his money. Great plan by Eddie to rake in money without much risk at all!
Analogies will always continue. If a franchised Hilton counts as a Hilton, a franchised Sears counts as a Sears. That's it.
This has nothing to do with LAYOFFS. Next! Move on with your creepy fetish!
EDIT: I meant to say company, not corporate owned locations.
Most likely, these are newly opened corporate locations, which Eddie is just itching to dump onto a naive person who is unaware of their ongoing history, including the inability to receive product for their customers.
A hometown has groceries? Which one?
This like the fourth old Sears or Kmart they’ve converted. Really thinking outside the box, one even has groceries!
And here we go with the GD analogies. Go get married to a hotel chain and get off this site! Ok, are we understanding each other?
Being franchised or not does not diminish it being a "Sears". When you stay at a Marriott, Hilton, Howard Johnson, whatever hotel, it is franchised, but it still counts.
Is it taking up the whole store? Sears Hometowns are usually much smaller than Kmarts.
I’m calling BS on this! You are just making stuff up to perpetuate your sick love of all things Kmart. Did you and Kmart have a child and name him sears? 🙄
Sears IS dead! Hometown are franchised / dealer stores. It may say "Sears" but they are far from Sears Department stores. And a lot of people who have these are trying to dump them. Can't get product, not making sales, etc.
Sears is far from dead
They opened up one just outside of Rapid City, in Spearfish SD, by me.