Eddie Lampert’s latest bid to lift Sears

sears will not make it, they will go chapter 11 soon

worked for Sears for 40 years in home service,appliance repair. It got to the point that there was never enough time to do the job right but always enough time to go back and do it over again. most of the experienced techs left after the merger includeing myself. I hope they go out of business, they deserve it.

There’s a difference between “pruning”
and “sucking the life out of”.
Sears will survive.
As Montgomery Wards did.
Online.
No brick and mortar overhead. Or help.

I have worked for Sears as a sales associate, for 11 years in Electronics department. When I look at the company I cannot,believe this is the same company I started working for years ago. My manager is salaried and should work only forty hours a week, but she is forced to work on her days off for the same amount of pay or risk losing her job so instead of working forty hours a week, she is at sears on average 60 or more hours a week for the same pay . sears is getting away with unfair labor pratices. another example commission sales people are often asked to become housekeppers and clean,stock merchandise and sign which should be done by mca associates but sears saves money and gives the salespeople a second job with no extra pay.which causes us to miss sales and have less time to wait on customers to try to make a living. It seems like every year I am there they figure out abother way to cut the pay. I know your saying why do you stay. I have only stayed with the company because of the vacation time I have accumulated. I have finally had it and decided to look for another job after yet another cut in our commission rates.also there use to be only experienced and knowledgeable salespeople in my area now almost anyone can get a job there on the salesfloor I have seen so many former fast food workers and all kinds of inexperienced partimers come and go.there average life exspectancy at sears is one to three months.gone or the days of the slogan good life great price. This is what Eddie Lampert has reduced this company too.

I sometimes receive mall gift cards that can be used for all but the smallest stores and kiosks. Because most of the stores in the mall don’t interest me, I usually use them at Sears to buy socks, underwear, jeans, small appliances, and the like.

Every time I give the cashier the gift card I hear that “BEEP” when she slides it through the machine. “Sorry, but the card is not coming up”. She stands there befuddled. ITS A GIFT CARD AND YOU’RE SEARS! I wait in line for the manager, who converts the gift card to a SEARS gift card. Then proceeds to use it to ring up my purchase. Twenty minutes on line to purchase a rice cooker! This has happened in more than one store over the past few years. I wonder how many disgruntled customers decided to take their gift cards and business elsewhere after the computer rejects it. Even the small seasonal stores in the mall have no problem processing a mall gift card, while one of the biggest retailers are turning away business because they can’t update their system.

I work for Sears as an associate, since Lampert came Sears hasnt been the same. Its under-aggressive and avertises to the wrong market. Its now the second thought in peoples mind for appliances and fith thought for other merch like tracktors and electronics

Justin is absolutly right. I am a K-Mart manager and I see many POSITIVE changes and sales starting to increase. The stores are getting remodeled and going to open spaces like Target stores. The product lines are excellent with the name brands they have. Joe Boxer, Martha Stewart, Craftsman, Kenmore, DieHard are MUCH better then Target and Wal-Mart store brands. Also, once all the K-Marts get remodeled and change the culture, the company will go on a aggressive marketing campaign to invite customers back. People will start to flood into K-Marts again. Eddie Lampert knows what he is doing and it isn’t a quick fix but it Sears holdings will be fixed.

I worked for Sears as a Store Manager, since Eddie came around it has been cut expenses to the point of taking all but 1 lamp out of the lighting fixtures to save on a electric bill. NEVER did Sears focus on SALES. Sears still does have a great name recognition but they do not use it to their advantage. Anyone looking for appliances goes to Sears to look first but buys at another retailer because Sears is not aggressive in investing in a sales culture where no matter what no customer walks without the best deal in the industry. With the high margins this can and does work, I watched many many times as a customer wanted to buy over 10k in appliances but walked because of a 10% coupon or a measly 50 dollar delivery. Its retail people…get back to the basics Eddie if you don’t sell anything then why open the doors, people can get all the info in the internet then buy at Lowes!!!
Sears will be gone in less than 2 years if he does not move on it now and become America’s Working Class Retailer!!!!

the greatest secret weapon that sears has is the dealer organization.great service,low overhead full assortment
5% sales increase…..8oo stores..the answer is simple shut down or scale down the malls and ramp up the dealer
stores dance with the one that brought you david

As a former Kmart/Sears store manager, I completely concur with the opinion that Sears is down and will be going out soon. To the former associates from Florida, all I can say is you are absolutely correct, management doesn’t care about you anymore because we were too busy trying to save our own rears. Having been in the same southern division as you, I probably have figured out who your district and regional managers were, and they are too busy trying to save themselves too. We cut and cut and cut, and unless they invent robots to take the money and wait on the customers, you might as well close the doors now. When I joined the company 3 plus years ago, it was during a period when Kmart “re-invented” the stores, dividing into task and customer service associates. That didn’t last long. Soon we were back to our old ways of having to do 25 to 30 planogram resets a week, and taking 35 to 40 pictures of what we did, because our senior management questioned Kmart’s ability to “execute”. Customer service was always mentioned as being the most important, yet it is an afterthought. Prices became competitve with Walgreen’s, not WalMart. Associate morale in all the stores on both sides of the company is below low, in fact, they have to look up to see bottom. If you are betting on Lampert to pull out a miracle, don’t worry, he owns the real estate, the only thing that has value besides the Sears brand names. Go into the stores and look around, you see dirty and old, worn out carpeting, in Kmart you see fixtures in need of repair, or those that have been fixed so many times that the duct tape marks are permanent. I, happily have joined a new company whose outlook is much brighter even in a down market, so there is hope, just not for SHC

In answer to your question, net worth usually does have a correlation to how smart you are. In the case of Lampert, it certainly shows. In your case, your envy certainly shows.

It is usual for envious mediocrities to pop up and laugh when a man who has been successful for decades, suddenly has a temporary setback. They don’t concentrate and concern themselves with the fact that they never went out there and did it any better–they wouldn’t even dare try. Their time is spent looking for greatness that looks like it has fallen, and telling them: “You see, who were you to think you’re any better than me.”

But the catch is: people like Lampert never spend time thinking about you–the envious critics. That’s why they are back on their feet in no time, and why you have to move on to look for someone else’s failure to relish.

I believe research has been done and the result is that net worth has no correlation to IQ. Please direct me if I am wrong..

Do they accept anything other than the Sears card yet? I never forget going to Sears at Christmas with $400 in gifts, slapping down my Visa only to hear them say we don’t accept Visa would you like to set your items down and fill out an application for a Sears card? Are you fricking kidding me, I’ve never been back.

If this company is not out of business in 5 years I will buy a pair of Crocks and wear them too.

I used to work for Kmart and left. They are so wrapped up in budget control that there is no focus on customer service. We used to have some talented management who liked people but they left. I worked in southwest Florida too and the management in place is tyranical to their help. I watched more verbal abuse and lack of work ethic from the people who were suppose to set examples. I actually listened to the district manager tell the hourly associates they did not deserve their jobs. It happened with the store open. The stores were dirty and every year they go through a spring cleaning. Why don’t they keep it clean all year? Merchandise is not handled correctly and customers used to get so frustrated. There was no training in place for management on people skills or harassment. They would talk horrible about the customers and would brag about firing people. Lowes and Home Depot carry great tool brands. Craftsman is a good brand but it is not the only brand. Since I left the company and I am glad I did. I was getting tired in working in buildings where the air conditioner did not function and I would be one of the few people on the floor where my boss would sit for hours hiding in the office. I liked the customers. They were my neighbors and part of my community. Since I left there I have not shopped Sears or Kmart once. It left such a bad taste in my mouth. From my personnel experience they have mistreated their customers and their employees. It is a people business and you can spend millions on advertising but if you don’t do people right there will be no business. Any fancy marketing gimmicks they employ will not attract my family or myself to spend money there. After working the last eighteen months with cut after cut which hurt my family and more verbal assaults then I needed to see in one lifetime ( on my co workers ), I don’t care what they do. I am comfortable shopping at my old competitors which I have become their new loyal customer.

This is the same old cycle Sears has been going through forever. When things go south, it is cut-cut-cut-cut, then when that can’t achieve anymore; they get a bew CEO, a new vision, bright shiny campaign, they restructure some or all of them business, etc, etc and they regain some of there market share and things are good. However, Sears doesn’t continue this like some retailers. They stop, rest on their laurels and collect that money until things go south again and then it is cut-cut-cut, etc. You get the picture! Sears seems to not be able to remember how they have fixed these down spins in the past. I have seen three of them since 1990 myself. Someone needs to remind them that they have to plug away everyday like their retailing life depended on it. Always looking for opportunity, better ways, better merchandise/branding, marketing, store appearance, customer service, and then cost cutting without sacrificing the reasons why people shop at Sears. They always shoot themselve in the foot because they only have this focus when things are bad, then they loose it when things are good. Sounds like 90% of companies in existence..and it is. But it is that 10% that is Target, Wal-Mart, etc. that are taking Sears’ market share and kicking there butts everyday. Why? Because they found out what works and coninutually do it. They never stop. Sears only does it when it needs to or else!

I have worked for Kmart for over ten years. Lambert is an investor and not a merchant. There are so many problems within Kmart and Sears. Customer service is not a priority. They emphasize selling smart plans (insurance plans) to customers. You can actually get fired for not selling them. There has been a management focused effort to getting rid of older employees. The store manager we had tells us we are all disposible and we did not deserve our jobs.This is while the stores are open and customers are walking around. He would make fun of the older customers and say he hated them. I work in southwest Florida and we have alot of older people here. This guy is held up as a model store manager and I have never seen people so poorly treated. When going to shop at other stores I found out management has been quitting left and right. So if you do not care about the people who work for you then how do you care for those (customers) who pay your paycheck. It has been worse since Lambert took over. Our payroll has been cut in half and I know the economy is slow but this is a discount chain. People should be going there but who wants to deal with no service or cashiers. As for the corporation having their focus together. We had merchandise piled sky high in our stock rooms for months because manaement was told it is more important to level the shelves than to stock the merchandise. That is what they would have our night crew do. No freight on straightening. By the time things were dug out alot was on clearance or out of date. Maybe more investment in actually running a store should be spent instead og gloryifying Eddies returns. He is one man and thousands of people are going to out of work if this guy does not trying to be something he is not. A aggressive investor is not a business manager or merchant. Wall Street did not invent Kmart or Walmart. The men who started the companys did. The reason they were successful is because they knew people. They knew and cared about their employees. You need people to want to come and work and spend money in your business. That is their failure and continues to be one.

It is Eddie’s lack of team management that continues to hurt the core of his business, consumers’ are more frustrated at their inability to purchase sale items that they (Con) are chased away to the “Evil Empire” (Big W) When Eddie does hire store and district level mgt. they are “Forced” into relocating across country with-out regard for family or forced to resign, We are talking MBA level employees! This leaves yet another sour taste in our mouths.

Having worked in the Sears big ticket dept for over a decade, I see a continuous tightening of return polices and a reduction of customer services. Have a problem with a just deliverd Frig? Call the store and if you can get someone to answer the phone you will be told someone will call you within 48 hour to try to resolve your problem. Nice.. as your ice cream melts and your food spoils. Cost saving by cutting customer service may yeild short term profit gains but kills the goose that lays the golden eggs.

I am an associate at Sears in the large appliance department. I think Sears can be fixed, however some money has to be spent at the store level. Yesterday I was helping a customer making a store to web purchase (we were in the electronics section) and it was taking a long time for the computer to load the page. He turned to me and said how come you have all these nice state of the art TV’s and the computer moniter we were using to help him purchase 2 new laptops was a 14 inch dell from the 90’s. I did not have an answer. Also relating to appliances according to our reps we have first right of refusal on alot of new items but our competition gets it first because our buyers are still stuck in the past. No wonder our market share is going down.

Personally I think Eddie Lampert is truly a genius. His wealth is @ stake. I know if my wealth was at stake I would be doing everything in my power to maintain and grow it. He did not achieve his wealth without a significant amount of brilliance. I trust that he has a few things up his sleeve to help regain the dominance. I would not count out SEARS/KMart as being down and out just yet. In fact, as a SEARS investor I am currently buying all I can @ this price! I will even go so far as to thank Eddie prematurely now! THANKS!
A faithful follower!

Sears definitely can be fixed. The company needs to assemble leadership and a team that really understands the fine points of retail and how to build sustained, profitable growth. Knowledge of finance and restaurants does not equal knowledge of apparel and home furnishings.

I don’t shop there any more. I don’t know what kind of store it is now. I never liked K-Mart to begin with and now I like Sears-Mart even less. The stores and merchandise are uninteresting. I can get whatever Sears has to offer at other stores or on-line for the same price or less, and other stores are actually enjoyable to shop at. I used to buy only Craftsman tools and Kenmore appliances but not any longer. There are other tools that are as good and most of my recent Kenmore experiences have been disappointing. The Lands End selections are weak. He has taken his eye off the ball.

If Sears managers and sales associates were not busy painting and tearing down displays, the customer service would probably be better.

Sears is broken. Fixable maybe. Dirty stores in old malls, cluttered, lots of junk, bad checkout experience, and most importantly – not a quality leader in its key brands. Kmart is more of the same. Eddie needs to get out and walk through a Target and a Best Buy, and turn the Sears tool and appliance area into an Apple Store like experience.

sears is ready to rock and roll. infrastructure is set. ready to increase floor traffic and it’s off to the races. start with the infant / todler department. make it second to none! other big boxes are weak & vulnerable in this area. this will create sales and increase traffic.
one-two punch, also jump in on the home solar activity

The Craftsman brand at Sears is serous trouble. In fact, just today the company that recently bought one Sears’s major U.S. suppliers of hand tools, Western Forge, from Emerson has fired Western Forge’s long time President and replaced him with consultants. The private company has sucked all the cash out of Western Forge to pay off their other debts and now Western Forge has no cash to make it through the summer not to mention the fall. The rumor is that they have stopped paying suppliers…never good for the long term viability of a company. This will probably result in the total collapse of Western Forge, a 42 year supplier of hand tools to Sears. My guess is that within 3 months all Sears tools will be made in China. When this happens, Craftsman just becomes another “Made in China” commodity with zero brand value. As for Kenmore and Die Hard; Kenmore has been a laggard in innovation for years compared to LG, Panasonic, and GE…. Die Hard has always had marginal brand recognition so its value is questionable….No amount of store investment will matter if Sears does not protect its brands. If they are smart, the would step into the Western Forge situation and save them…after all, at one time Western Forge was considered so critical to Sears’ success that Sears actually owned a 50% stake in them.

Retailing is: Give the customer what she/he wants. Buy more of what sells. Get rid of what does not sell. Mr. Lampert does not yet understand this. Sears buyers and other executives do not understand this. To achieve change, Sears’ corporate management culture must change. Failing in all of the above will result in the sure end of Sears.

I heard a qoute from a founder of a company, very smart man, built a great brand name that was amazing. He said, “Take care of the customer, take care of the employee and the rest will take care of it’s self.” It did at the time.

I am not going to question Mr. Lambert, who is certainly much more smarter than you and me. With such powerful brands under Sears’ control, not even the mighty Walmart and Target can compete with labels such as Craftsman and Kenmore. Consumers do not go to Walmart or Target to buy tools and refridgerators. However, they do go to Sears to buy Craftsman and Kenmore. It is a huge competitive advantange for Sears. Mr. Lambert is a genious.

Mr. Lampert rode the consumer bubble for years, but failed to get out at the top. The greatest minds in investing will come to realize the world has changed. Retail won’t be coming back for a long time.

Sears is more than flawed. I was a Sears “Diehard” as late as 3-4 years ago. I used to buy Craftsman took and lawn equipment exclusively, Kenmore appliances were something I aspired to, and I looked forward to ‘date night’ with my wife in Sears. Over the last 3-4 years, ever Sears store that I’ve been in looks like the store maintenance and upkeep budget must have be cut to $0. Store are dirty, poorly lit, and full of merchandise with damaged packaging – ugh. In the more distant past, Sears employees were second to none in helpfulness, attitude, and knowledge. Now, when I go in the store, >50% of the employees in the tool section appear to have less than 2 months experience, often walking around a bit aimlessly. As a marketing executive, it is so sad to watch an iconic brand go down the drain.

While I admire Lampert’s focus on closely managing reinvestment in the organization, at some point you just have to walk through the store and realize that the experience has changed dramatically and not in a positive way. I suspect that Sears is close to the tipping point where they will see customers migrating away at an accelerating rate and it may be getting too late to fix. At minimum, it may be too late to fix with the hugely disciplined approach to spending – they may need to take some risks, spend some $’s, throw things against the wall and see what sticks.

Good luck and let’s hope Sears is not the next Montgomery Ward’s. They lost relevance too.

Sears is definitely broken and mismanaged. Stores are old and poorly lighted,except for Craftsman,Kenmore there are no brands at Sears. Home Depot,Lowes, are more than acceptable alternatives for buying tools, appliances. Sears is pitiful in their assortment of apparel, accessories ,intimate apparel and jewelry. Sales staff are poorly trained and poorly managed. Advertising is good but for sure at K mart try to buy what is advertised. K Mart must have a vast inventory of Rain checks. In-stock inventory is lacking . Sell the real estate.

If Sears would respect its employees and customers it could rise from the ashes. Moral in the stores is terrible. Associates are threatened with firing everyday on performance issues when performance expectations are unreasonably high for a decaying retailer.
Customers fondly remember the old Sears and are bored with the “new” Sears. There is no buzz at Sears. You don’t have to believe me; just continue to watch the numbers fall.
How to turn it around: 1 Push US made 2 Stop pestering customers with extended warranties 3 Stop pushing credit on customers 4 restructure pricing to “discount” levels (discount is more a perception than a price) 5 Have a person always answer a phone 6 Bring back customer satisfaction guaranteed 7 massively advertise these changes nation wide 8 Increase pay to frontline associates and reduce salaried mgrs in stores.

It has always been fixable. The true problem is that a financial expert trying to operate a retail business. There is more than the numbers to operate a retail business. Internally the retail business is running without a merchant. I don’t believe a retail merchant would any more successful running a hedge fund. Or at least that would be observed and discussed with greater criticism if attempted

I used to be a loyel Sears customer until my Kenmore toaster oven burst into flames when it was a year old(It wasn’t even turned on.!) and my expensive Kenmore microwave burnt out a little over a year after I bought it. When I contacted customer service, the employee complained that he didn’t really want to file a complaint because nothing would be done anyway. Then a year later, I tried to buy a bed at a Sears bedding sale. There was a long line and one employee servicing the whole bedding department. When I complained, he started yelling at me and told me that he wouldn’t be able to take my order that day because Sears’ management would not send in another salesperson.

A month ago I also spoke to a woman whose compressor burnt out on her 18 month old Kenmore refrigerator. I wasn’t surprised. Others may have had better experiences, but I, for one, will not shop at Sears.

How would I vote? I think the question is flawed. I don’t think Sears is broken. I think there are improvements to be made across the board, what I would simply call removing or smoothing the friction points from doing business with Sears & Kmart. Fundamentally, I think that Sears has good brands, good store locations, good products, and is frankly showing improvements across the board. However, it’s the “little” things that get in the way. For ex. shopping experience on the website has a lot room for improvement, customer service is lacking at the store level because they are frustrated with the old systems Sears has etc. So are there room for repairs? Yes, and it’s not rocket science on any level except the execution level.

Sears is owned by some of the greatest minds in investing today (Lampert, Ackman, Tisch, Parbrai, Price, Legg Mason, Berkowitz), and is in my opinion the most compelling investment on Wall St. today.

Justin