Talk of a turn around is clearly just talk. It was revealed about a month ago that the #1 Kmart store (St. Clair Shores, Michigan) was being bought and then torn down by the Kroger Company. This property was spun off to Seritage, just as our local Sears at Macomb Mall was. FYI-the Sears closed a few weeks ago (At Home is taking a majority of the store space.) At our still well stocked Kmart store tonight, I noticed all the non-Kmart or Sears gift cards had been removed-as had the Michigan lottery and Western Union service. An employee confirmed a closing date of January 13, 2018, though nothing has officially been announced in the press or by SHLD. Again, there is no way Mr. Lampert is serious about doing anything other than making a cash grab with these premium properties. Kmart and Sears clearly have no future at this point, and that saddens me. The fact that an individual can run a company into the ground and sell off all its valuable land and assets along the way just seems plain wrong to me.
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@dzu you must be at Oakland mall. No it’s because your backend staff gets so many complaints for rudeness and incompetency.
They’re getting some new folks and then waiting for the remodel (from @home moving in) then you’ll be back on. When members call and complain they turn it back on for a day or two.thenthe issues start so back off it goes.
I have been told numerous times that our Kmart is one of the top in the company. People were foolish enough to think that would keep us safe. Though after seeing this and reading what other people have said about other Kmarts that were one, doing extremely well in sales and two, had not competition? Yeah, that's still not going to save our store from getting the ax. In fact at this point NO Kmart is safe but hey, that never was news to me.
@dzu yea keep dreaming
The dot come orders have been shut off in our sears store in Michigan also, and we are just down the road from the closing Kmart store , could this be the end for us ? They tell us its because we have been having to many no's when the orders come in. This maybe the end for our store also !
Dave,
I noticed over the weekend that online ordering was turned off for St Clair Shores, I was surprised that there was still no banner over the door announcing the "closing". Any idea when the actual closing is set to begin?
@bbh you may be right be Eddit owns more SHLD shares than Seritage shares so it doesn't make sense to close stores making money and have Sears pay Seritage for this.
Sears can't stop the losses, it's already done, the company as we know it is over. He is setting himself up with the loans, the seritage properties, etc. When this is all over he comes out ahead and will make a lot of money. Do you realize these seritage properties he is closing has to pay a years rent and a years operating cost? And guess who Sears pays that to? If he cared at all about the company or the employees who work for him he would not be closing stores that are actually making money.
*cnt- you are so right in your post!
Fast Eddie cares about one thing.... Fast Eddie!
@vgw Sorry but I still don't understand your argument.
Transforming SHLD is hard when you compete with Amazon or Costco I think we can all agree that all brick and mortar retailers have hard time.
Eddie owns SHLD and I don't see how he is making money, the stock price dropped from above 100$/share to under 7$/share, there is no way he will ever profit from this situation.
And I don't understand how closing the best stores and keeping the underperforming stores would help Sears stop the losses, can you explain this to me ?
I think he tries to closes the money-losing stores , sell them to other retailers that will hire the former Sears employees and keep other good stores open.
You make a good point about the Seritage stores being closed, but there is no interest for anyone to close good stores that are not owned by Seritage, isn't it ?
If he didn't care about employees he would have close all stores and sold real estate, he didn't do it so I still believe there is a little hope for transforming the company even if it uncertain.
@puq underperforming stores? Macomb mall was not an underperforming store and neither is the St Clair Shores Kmart, it is one if not the top Kmart in the company. Underperforming stores that are not seritage properties are still open, down 50% daily in sales. So he's closing the top performers which are seritage properties and keeping open the underperformers which are owned by Sears. What does that tell you? If you can't figure it out you ARE a special kind of stupid!
Puq "doing the best he can"...Really??? You mean destroying a company to line his pockets by forcing the stores to self destruct is his Best? Making his management team turn on each other in order to get what they need...that's his Best? With an attitude like that, you could get your next job working for the potus, justifying his " best " behavior, too.
Fast Eddie is a venture capitalist squeezing the last drop of money out of both sears and Kmart
If he can close the very first Kmart that started it all he has no moral compass. His addiction is money.
Once Amazon gets their distribution centers completed in michigan it’s going to get very competitive in michigan
Even Detroit is competing for Amazon to bring their headquarters to their city
Fast Eddie could have turned sears/Kmart around by innovating and putting money into the stores for a great customer experience
But who knows what’s going to happen except fast Eddie himself
Just feel bad for all who will eventually loose their jobs
I think you are wrong.
Eddie Lampert is doing the best he can to save and keep the maximum number of jobs at Sears.
When a caompany has been losing billions for 10 years and can't compete with Amazon or Costco the only way to keep the remaining job, is unfortunately, to close the underproductive stores.
Don't you see that if he didn't care about jobs he could have closed all the stores 5 or 10 years ago and sold the real estate ?
Instead he choose to keep most of them open, even when they were losing millions every month and tried to transform the company with SYW.It didn't seem to work but at least he tried.
There is no way to keep stores open for long when they have been losing money and customers for years, the only thing to do is close them and sell them to other retailers like Costco or Amazon that will hire the employees of Sears that were working at the closed stores.It's the best thing to do for everyone.
Seritagegrowth.com has lincoln park sears listed as well as briarwood sears and some others both sears and Kmart.
I am wondering if as soon as fast Eddie finds new tenants/ buyers for the michigan companies listed if then he just announces a closing list of ALL remaining stores in michigan.
The annual closing list should be interesting unless like others say fast Eddie is doing stealth closings to keep the charade going long enough to capitalize and fatten his wallet up
Remember michigan minimum wage is increasing to $9.25 1/1/2018 too and I think by 7/1/2018 the balance of that big loan is due ( was pushed back this year remember?)
Oh and there is that pesky pension obligation too that I believe is very underfunded!
It’s almost like spin the bottle now
Good luck to us all! It’s very disheartening and sad
Good luck to the really high full time seniority people and their future pensions. If sears/ Kmart do go bankrupt, those small pensions will be cut in half unless fast Eddie finds a way out of that obligation
As the garden city, westland, Plymouth, livonia stores sit VACANT!
I heard the Jriger company wanted to buy garden city Kmart, tear down and build new Kroger with fuel pumps and owners would not sell under those conditions, I also heard that a fitness center was moving there.
Kroger of garden city is closing ( there are probably 5 Kroger’s within a 5-10 mike radius)
Our sears store is bluldging at the seams with product ( probably redirected from closed stores that was bought by sears long ago) and hardly any customers!
Yet the new and improved slogan is
FREE CASH! And NO don’t dare to advise customers of this because we are a company in business to make a profit!!
Is that why there is no air circulation in store? At 9:50 am you could always tell the store was going to open because air conditioners would kick on and I am sure there are no override buttons anywhere!
If the #1 Kmart store is doomed what is next? It's all about the real estate with Eddie. I knew the end for kmart was soon once he shuttered the first one on garden city. Who cares about history? It's all about maximizing his profits while he can.
How disgusting that everyone knows this store is closing and the company has not even officially anounced it. No respect for the employees that work there. You are right Eddie has no intention of doing anything but making money on these properties. He has absolutely no regard for any employees. We are all going to close in time, but who's next? Maybe Troy or Lakeside? Anybody out there know?
Not only selling it off, but selling it to his own company. The big qestion what stores in michigan are next.