Sears, the store that changed America, declares bankruptcy

[peter0425]

Sears, the store that changed America, declares bankruptcy

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

New York (CNN Business)Sears, the once-dominant retail chain that changed how Americans shopped and lived, has filed for bankruptcy.
The 132-year-old company has been struggling for several years and is drowning in debt. The final straw was a $134 million debt payment due Monday that it could not afford.
Sears Holdings (SHLD), the parent company of Sears and Kmart, is among dozens of prominent retailers to declare bankruptcy in the era of Amazon (AMZN).

Oh well, sad to see Sears go but competition is really tough out there specially with the booming online business so its just a matter of time before those giants go down one by one. It will have a negative impact as more people is now out of job not just in the US but in other parts as well, specially call centers or customer service representative around the globe (Asia) that supports Sears.

[pinkflower]

I dont think Sear's bankruptcy will affect inbound call center jobs. Sears is just one giant among other giant companies from America, Europe and Asia that want to save costs by offsourcing jobs.

Anyhow, bad news. Amazon should buy Sears lol.

[Hydrogen]

Sears wiped out many retailers with its innovative mail order business on its way to becoming successful and established.

The same way amazon is wiping sears out now with its internet order business. Perhaps in the distant future another retailer will innovate one step beyond amazon and wipe them out, too. We may simply be witnessing evolution and innovation of the business cycle. It can be a brutal and cold thing. Someone reigns as king of the mountain until another younger, smarter, and hungrier out-innovates them and eventually dethrones them. Then there is a new king of the mountain.

The same thing may be happening in many different sectors, if not as visible or publicly known. There are many shifts occurring in terms of industry.

The only strange thing I see about this is what appears to be an anti-capitalist agenda being pushed. The media is taking a stance whereby large corporations like amazon are 100% guilty of everything and governments are 100% innocent. The media never criticizes the government for anything unless they're attacking Trump which is a strong pro socialist narrative.

[Ycekezuv]

As experience shows, these shops will leave, others will come and so on, so this is a continuous process!

[Kemarit]

Anyhow, bad news. Amazon should buy Sears lol.

I don't think that Amazon will buy Sears.  .  But it looks like they will be open up till Christmas season as the bankruptcy judge approved a $300 million to finance the company so at least that's good news. Anyways, as @Hydrogen has pointed out there's a total shift from retailers to e-commerce (Amazon). Its brutal but its how society are build, you're the king until someone revolutionize things, and if you can't adapt then you won't survived and that's what happened to Sears. Its going to be cycle though, we will see one day that someone or something will replace Amazon in the future.

[davis196]

Anyhow, bad news. Amazon should buy Sears lol.

I don't think that Amazon will buy Sears.  .  But it looks like they will be open up till Christmas season as the bankruptcy judge approved a $300 million to finance the company so at least that's good news. Anyways, as @Hydrogen has pointed out there's a total shift from retailers to e-commerce (Amazon). Its brutal but its how society are build, you're the king until someone revolutionize things, and if you can't adapt then you won't survived and that's what happened to Sears. Its going to be cycle though, we will see one day that someone or something will replace Amazon in the future.

E-commerse is a confusing business.There are thousands of Shopify stores,that manage to survive and make profits,while the big giants like Amazon dominate everything in the online retail business.
E-commerse is still growing worldwide and there's enough space for the big and the small.Companies like Sears just couldn't adapt.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Big LOL at this news.  Why?  Because I've been following Sears stock for a few years now (don't own any), and analysts have been predicting this for a long time.  KMart is owned by Sears, and there was a KMart in my town that went out of business about two years ago.  Toward the end, the floor had holes in it, OTC medications sat on the shelves expired, and inventory wasn't being restocked.  The whole store was a mess, and there are stories about existing Sears stores currently being just like that. 

The whole problem is the CEO, who wanted to turn Sears into some sort of Berkshire Hathaway (Eddie Lampert is a big fan of Warren Buffett) and in the process neglected the stores and wouldn't listen to his customers or employees.  The guy sounds like a complete idiot, honestly.  Then he kept loaning money to Sears from his own hedge fund thing to keep it afloat--it was one of the strangest business things I'd ever seen.

Anyway, Sears was an American icon for many years and it's sad to see something like that die, but this didn't come out of the blue and it's not going to be a huge loss to anyone.  When was the last time any of you shopped at a Sears or KMart store?  I know for me it's been years, and I can find stuff much cheaper at Walmart, Target, or at an online retailer like Amazon.  RIP Sears.

[Sherwood_Archer]

I was really surprised when I read the news. It's something that you expect to be there forever even though you don't really buy anything from them. LOL They failed to adapt and this is what happened. I guess the same thing would happen to any business who fails to adapt to the digital world. A lot of people nowadays buy almost everything online. When I need something I usually check ebay and Amazon if they have it and just have them delivered at home. It is more convenient that way. In a way it is also more fun shopping online as you get to see more products in detail than going to a physical store.

[Theb]

When technology arrived we now know that this traditional kinds of businesses who are not ready to embrace technology are in danger of running out of businesses. When shopping and groceries can already be done without even setting our foot out our houses we now know that people will do the most convenient way of getting what they need thus this businesses will lose their customers overtime, combined it with improper management as well as cutting the wrong corners your company won't last in the mobile phone era.

[Sengoko]

I dont think Sear's bankruptcy will affect inbound call center jobs. Sears is just one giant among other giant companies from America, Europe and Asia that want to save costs by offsourcing jobs.

Anyhow, bad news. Amazon should buy Sears lol.

Exactly, there would always be a lot of other competitors within the space that are always looking for more call center operators to make use of all over the world by outsourcing it to freelancers.
Like the OP said, there are so many other competitors which could have led to the downfall of Sears as they could not keep up with their game.

I was actually imagining a giant company buying off sears anyway, but I am sure before filing for bankruptcy, they would have tried to avail every means. It is a pity though for Sears, I could not have thought of it.

[BitcoinCommodor]

Sears, the store that changed America, declares bankruptcy

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

New York (CNN Business)Sears, the once-dominant retail chain that changed how Americans shopped and lived, has filed for bankruptcy.
The 132-year-old company has been struggling for several years and is drowning in debt. The final straw was a $134 million debt payment due Monday that it could not afford.
Sears Holdings (SHLD), the parent company of Sears and Kmart, is among dozens of prominent retailers to declare bankruptcy in the era of Amazon (AMZN).

Oh well, sad to see Sears go but competition is really tough out there specially with the booming online business so its just a matter of time before those giants go down one by one. It will have a negative impact as more people is now out of job not just in the US but in other parts as well, specially call centers or customer service representative around the globe (Asia) that supports Sears.

Honestly it is a bit of their own fault as well. If you do not adapt to the change than the change will kick you out. If amazon is getting this much bigger every year and sears hasn't seen it so far than its their own fault to get bankrupt in this era, they had the most perfect business model to be fighting in this competition considering they could literally start a website that could send the products anywhere very quickly (since they had stores everywhere) and if you adapt like that and build an online store that can cater any ones needs from sears easily than you would have lived, they should have done it a lot earlier and a lot bigger, it was too little too late for them. I hope some other brick and mortar stores sees this as a danger sign and try to implement online world into their current system somehow.

[Ladysmith]

Adapt or die. They should've seen this coming but it looks like the captain wanted to go down with the brick and mortar retail ship. I see it as a "bad" for a good. The more digital goods and services become, the cheaper they are to produce and sell, the more accessible they are to everyone around the globe.

[prtty2gal2]

Sears, the store that changed America, declares bankruptcy

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

New York (CNN Business)Sears, the once-dominant retail chain that changed how Americans shopped and lived, has filed for bankruptcy.
The 132-year-old company has been struggling for several years and is drowning in debt. The final straw was a $134 million debt payment due Monday that it could not afford.
Sears Holdings (SHLD), the parent company of Sears and Kmart, is among dozens of prominent retailers to declare bankruptcy in the era of Amazon (AMZN).

Oh well, sad to see Sears go but competition is really tough out there specially with the booming online business so its just a matter of time before those giants go down one by one. It will have a negative impact as more people is now out of job not just in the US but in other parts as well, specially call centers or customer service representative around the globe (Asia) that supports Sears.

That is a bit terrible for them actually considering the impact they really have had in America and even worldwide actually. However, it is life, shit happens and I believe they would most definitely find a way to move on, although considering how big this has been, I wonder how they were able to manage to get into bankruptcy even with all the competitions around as I believe there is enough room to go around. Well, it has happened, and for those who lost their jobs, there are several other competitors that would be glad to take them for their experience.

[Antinomist]

The news was very saddening. Hoping cryyptocurrency can do something to help these people out in this distress by providing jobs and other opportunities.

[Symptomatic]

Like it is said in the topic it is sad to see sears go bankrupt but this is the kind of situation in the competition. The next new innovative comoany will always take over a non developing or adapting company.

[Thinkable999]

It's really sad to see a company like that going bankrupt. To be honest if companies are not able to adapt to the new technologies this is bound to happen.

[Mr.Boring007]

It’s saddening to know that, Sears have been declared bankrupt and all the shops are now being closed. Sears is trying to go into the e -commerce business like Amazon and others letting go off the retailer business. One of the reason for this is their CEO, who is not happy with this business. Furthermore it is good to know that Bankruptcy judge has petitioned them to loan $300mil to recover.

[figmentofmyass]

The only strange thing I see about this is what appears to be an anti-capitalist agenda being pushed. The media is taking a stance whereby large corporations like amazon are 100% guilty of everything and governments are 100% innocent. The media never criticizes the government for anything unless they're attacking Trump which is a strong pro socialist narrative.

i don't see the point in distinguishing between "state capitalism" and "capitalism". after all, rational capitalists will always use governments to their advantage if it means increasing their profits. even anarcho-capitalists generally concede that they would form their own militarized states based on private property ownership, so the distinction seems moot. governments may play a considerable in role in establishing monopolies, but it still boils down to capitalism.

companies like amazon attain monopolies by aggressively undercutting their competition and exploiting economies of scale. they might leverage government barriers to entry to make industry even less competitive, but their entire model is to eliminate competition and monopolize industry.

should we be happy that amazon is attaining monopoly status in multiple industries, and that no one can compete with them? as its competitors drop off one by one, amazon increases its control over prices and consumers lose their ability to "vote with their dollars".

there's nothing good about what's happening. amazon is cornering the market on lots of consumer goods; the next step is jacking the prices up. i'm already seeing it in my own purchases (on amazon, at whole foods, etc). when they've already bought out the competitors or otherwise driven them out of business (this is happening now), there will be nowhere left to turn.

[Pab]

Sears, the store that changed America, declares bankruptcy

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/15/business/sears-bankruptcy/index.html

New York (CNN Business)Sears, the once-dominant retail chain that changed how Americans shopped and lived, has filed for bankruptcy.
The 132-year-old company has been struggling for several years and is drowning in debt. The final straw was a $134 million debt payment due Monday that it could not afford.
Sears Holdings (SHLD), the parent company of Sears and Kmart, is among dozens of prominent retailers to declare bankruptcy in the era of Amazon (AMZN).

Oh well, sad to see Sears go but competition is really tough out there specially with the booming online business so its just a matter of time before those giants go down one by one. It will have a negative impact as more people is now out of job not just in the US but in other parts as well, specially call centers or customer service representative around the globe (Asia) that supports Sears.

It is just Sears .United States already lost America symbol what was Detroit and all automotive industry
Where is old good Cisco they had wonderful products
China bought Motorola and mobile part of IBM what is now Lenovo
Very often bankruptcy is not the end of company just escaping from problems
It will be more trouble for US companies .Tarifs war will rise cost of production
Already small and medium companies are reporting problems