re: #163 lawhawk

There are two Sears department stores in Northern NJ. Both are being shuttered and turned into something else.

Sears is a wasteland thanks to the incompetence of a billionaire owner whose views on running a business involve profiting from layoffs and selling off parts to others, and then watching his own value diminish because he’s wasted away whatever value was left.

Destroy brands like Lands End, Craftsman, and Kenmore. Hope that selling the real estate will cover his costs, and maintain his net worth (it hasn’t).

It’s a circle the drain situation, and JC Penney is doing pretty much the same thing.

It didn’t have to be that way. Both companies were industry leaders in mail order, and they completely overlooked the Internet. Had they taken to the internet quickly, they would have had the edge on Amazon because they already had the distribution chain to do everything from same day service to handling durable good sales.

Our full-bore Sears died a couple years ago and has resurfaced as a very small display room in another part of town. For a while, Sears/Craftsman was merging with the 2 K-Mart retail spaces, and then they went under. At one time Sears personnel were very knowledgeable, especially in the tool area. At the end they could barely find their way across the store.