Sears, grand?
If you haven't heard already, Kmart and Sears are merging to create the 3rd largest retailing giant, behind only WalMart and Home Depot.
Kmart's former boss, Eddie Lampert, was a major holder of Sears stock. He's now in charge of both as a combined "Sears Holdings" operation.
Will they....
A. Compete with Wal-Mart and give retailers in America a run for their money, through the use of brand combination (Martha Stewart AND Kenmore, Joe Boxer AND Craftsman?)
B. Reduce Kmart to a historical vestige (a.k.a Kresge, Dayton-Hudson, Woolworth's) and push the development of a new concept Sears Grand to replace and rejuvenate Kmart locations across the country?
C. Sell, sell, sell prime real-estate that is worth more than store-by-store sales, until there's nothing left, then lay everyone off while Lampert flips open his golden parachute and uses the money he makes for his next big adventure.
Or a combination of two or all of these choices?
I lean towards a combo of B & C, likely headed towards C, with Lampert not being quite that evil. He did do good things with struggling AutoZone, and after all, it's hard to out-evil WalMart. But, my personal feelings about the evil empire of retailing will be for another post.
posted by Jason at 12:34 PM
5 Comments:
This is not news. Talk of Sears and KMart go back as far as Augest. From what I gathered some of the KMart stores are going to stay KMart stores where some of them will be turned into some kind of cross of Sears and KMart. I think some stores will be sold, where KMart just can't compete against Wal-Mart. Not all areas does Wal-Mart have total market share, some areas is pretty much equal.
8:19 PM
Actually, speculation has been running for a very long time on the subject, really for years. I just was pondering shopping and wondering what store I should visit. (Give my money to the dev... er Wal-Mart, or spend it at a company that might be just looking to cash out here in the next couple of years and lay everyone off...) I think for my discounting needs, I'll be sticking with Target as the lesser of the three evils, unless Sears/Kmart can convince me they're in the long haul. I'd rather give my money to someone like a Costco that actually pays their employees closer to a living wage, but alas.... no Costco where I am.
1:04 PM
LOL We both worked in retail even Target doesn't pay it's employess a living wage lets be real here. Target pays about the same the Walmart pays here in Erie. Trust me I know, I'm job hunting.. LOL
12:18 AM
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
5:13 PM
I mis-quoted myself and had to delete the post. Here's what I meant to say:
My key words being "lesser of three evils"... I'm not a big fan of Target either, but I have to be realistic about things. It's my small way of thumbing my nose at the Man, with the understanding that I'm playing right into the hands of "another Man"
10:32 PM
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