Sears - A History

I thought I had nothing else to say, or read, about this story except the (surely soon to happen) looming bankruptcy.  Then I found this little piece by the New York Times that tells their whole story in brief.

Great little read.

Here is a portion of the piece:

Imagine a retailer that began by specializing in just one product, then grew into a mammoth that redefined the American shopping experience.

Among its innovations: No matter where you lived, it shipped your order directly to you, whether you were looking for cast-iron cookware, a mandolin, the newest technological marvel, or the latest in petticoats.

Amazon, right? Actually, it was Sears — a century ago.

Here is the full story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/business/the-incredible-shrinking-sears.html?mcubz=1

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Sears Utilizes IBM Watson and NOBODY CARES

Wow, talk about focusing on the wrong problem.

Pain in your neck?  Put your foot in a cast.  Right?

No.

http://risnews.edgl.com/retail-news/Sears-Utilizes-IBM-Watson-s-Artificial-Intelligence-108611

Dead company walking. The stores are falling apart with zombie employees and empty shelves and they are implementing Artificial Intelligence.  Okay.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Sears ...

Do I need to say anything?

Okay, I visited Sears this past weekend looking for a particular screwdriver. First time I've visited a Sears in a year or more.  What a mess.  Death knocking.  Felt like I was in a funeral home.  Am I alone in this?

Not even close.

Read on:

http://www.businessinsider.com/sears-failing-stores-closing-edward-lampert-bankruptcy-chances-2017-1

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen employees, ranging from store clerks to senior executives, about the unraveling of Sears. Many spoke on the condition that they not be identified for fear of legal retribution from Lampert and Sears, including one person who specified that she would only speak off the record upon the advice of an attorney. Some said they had signed nondisclosure forms barring them from sharing information about the company.

The content of this article was described in detail to two Sears spokesmen, both of whom declined to comment when asked.

Oh, and they are selling their Craftsman brand to help pay the bills shorter term. Selling Craftsman?!!?  What is left to care about there?

I do think Sears is interesting to watch for one key reason: their focus on digital. Clearly ONLY having a digital strategy to turn a retail company around isn't working.  If the stores are dirty and shabby looking, with irrelevant products that are poorly arranged and too often out of stock, and employees shambling around like they are waiting for the funeral to end, nothing else you do will matter.

Happy Reading, or Not,

J.W. Gant

Macy's, Kohl's Lose as Amazon Wins

And the winner is?

Amazon.

Again and again and again.

Macy's just announced store closings and layoffs.  Sears is continuing to lose, huge, and Kohl's saw its stock drop as their holiday sales missed expectations (hopes).

Good piece by NBC News on this:

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/department-stores-are-paying-price-underestimating-amazon-n703596

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Industry observers blame online competition, as well as department store brands' own shortfalls in adapting to a fundamental shift in consumer behavior.

"For both retailers, the consistent themes of the shortfalls are weak traffic between Black Friday and Christmas," Goldman Sachs analyst Lindsay Drucker Mann wrote...

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Sears is in Trouble - Yeap

Don't we already know this?  Oh.  This story predicts it will be the next retailer to fold:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-19/sears-turnaround-seen-failing-by-traders-in-credit-swaps-market

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Billionaire Eddie Lampert’s quest to revive Sears Holdings Corp. is looking dubious to credit-swaps traders.

It now costs more to insure against a Sears default for a year than for five years, a dynamic that indicates traders anticipate a credit event such as a default in the near term. The relationship was reversed as recently as last month, according to prices compiled by CMA in the privately negotiated market for credit swaps.

The 129-year-old company, which has lost $7 billion over the past four years, is trying to avoid the fate of RadioShack Corp., another once-iconic retailer that filed for bankruptcy protection this month. Sears has divested assets and received cash infusions from Lampert, one of its largest shareholders. In November, the Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based company said it was considering the sale and leaseback of as many as 300 stores as part of its turnaround effort.

Sears has to regain its footing.  If they can do that by stopping the bleeding they buy time.  Their options for buying time are running out however so I have to agree with the traders here.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0086 Mobile Payments Revolution?

The people at Mobile Commerce Daily have a good piece on the revolution coming through mobile payments.  The title says a lot:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/payments-companies-will-mobile-end-the-party

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Most multichannel players do a majority of their business offline in their stores but find that online is growing faster than in-store. The payment businesses are categorized into several areas such as issuers, acquirers, processors and others.

What is fascinating is the huge difference in the respective mechanics of how each of these segments creates enterprise value. And, specifically, how mobility disrupts the payments business.

Is mobile technology the silver bullet that has finally arrived which will change the rules and be a catalyst for redistribution of value creation from the payments players to the merchant segment?

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0078 Retail Death Spiral

Karen Webster over on pymts.com has an analysis on physical retail stores and the impact eCommerce is having and will continue to have on those stores:

http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/acquiring/merchant-solutions/2014/the-coming-physical-retail-death-spiral

Here is a snippet from that article:

It’s the 1950’s, and the birth of the shopping mall. Before then, all shopping was done at local merchants. Malls changed all of that, making the shopping experience efficient (lots of stores under one roof), social (it was something women and friends and families did together) and fun (there was lots to do). All shopping was done in physical stores and, increasingly, away from the local merchant scene that had defined retail for centuries.

In 1999, five years after the launch of Amazon.com and the year in which Jeff Bezos was namedTime magazine’s Person of the Year, eCommerce accounted for only 0.5 percent of retail sales. Even today, with the diffusion of the Internet and mobile devices, eCommerce accounts for less than 6 percent of all sales, but it’s growing rapidly.
Happy reading,

J.W. Gant