Sears predicted to go bankrupt

Nice.

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker...st,dia,spy,XRT

This says it all:

"Lack of investment in stores. "The stores are terrible; they don't look any better than they did five years ago. In fact, they look worse." Matthews notes Wal-Mart spends tens of billions a year on stores, while Sears is spending about $200 million. That's no way to compete."

I wonder if hedge fund wizards like Lampert will take a huge loss on any of his own equity ( when Sears goes down ) or he'll just default on the loan and bond holders.

I like Sears, only for Craftsman tools though.

myke

Originally Posted by IBJanky

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I like Sears, only for Craftsman tools though.

myke

True, whenever I need an arcane tool, they always have it!

and it's also handy for returning anything from LE that doesn't work out.

Hmmm I've sued Sears a few times for messing with elderly folks (I'm a legal aid lawyer). The way they treated people was pretty awful. Most of their revenue didn't come from the products they sold, but the service contracts you buy along with the products--which are mostly a waste of money. Hopefully, this Chicago institution will become a respectable middle-class business again, not one that makes its profits from cheating folks.

I recall being highly recommended to invest in Sears about 2 years ago based simply upon the value of the real estate. The lousy looking stores and lack of consumer appeal kept me from doing so. But apparently it drew a lot of "smart" money from people interested in alternative commercial real estate driven investment opportunities. I'm not surprised by the stats on the lack of money invested in their stores. I went to visit one when the recommendation came up and was depressed just visiting it.

On a somewhat related topic, I am seeing so much empty retail space in every major city I visit. New York City has a lot in mid to lower midtown, especially newer developments. It looks very much like NYC in the 80's when Trump was going through his bankruptcy and real estate went sideways for about 10 years. I was on Union Street in San Francisco Wednesday. Wow, there are a lot of "For Lease" signs. It seems that we are in for a long painful commercial real estate adjustment, IMO.

i've worked on some planogramming **** for them, as well as a few of lampert's pet projects. a blind man could see this coming. state of the stores has been a huge issue.

Originally Posted by IBJanky

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I like Sears, only for Craftsman tools though.

myke

This.

Almost all of the tools I own are Craftsman. The quality is outstanding, and the warranty on hand tools is great. I have a tool set from them that I've had for 12+ years, and I've had one of the ratchets fail once. All I had to do was bring it into the store; the guy swapped it right out no questions asked.

That said, the article is dead on about the shopping experience. Every time I go into a Sears I feel like I need to bathe afterwards.

Originally Posted by royskeen

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Hmmm I've sued Sears a few times for messing with elderly folks (I'm a legal aid lawyer). The way they treated people was pretty awful. Most of their revenue didn't come from the products they sold, but the service contracts you buy along with the products--which are mostly a waste of money. Hopefully, this Chicago institution will become a respectable middle-class business again, not one that makes its profits from cheating folks.
very interesting. so i guess it's not just me who has experienced being cheated by this company. i have refused to do business with Sears since 1995 and when (if) it is dead and gone, i'll go piss on its grave

Didn't Sears buy Land's End a few years ago?

Originally Posted by Wes Bourne

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Didn't Sears buy Land's End a few years ago?

I'm pretty sure they did.

Originally Posted by thekunk07

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i've worked on some planogramming **** for them, as well as a few of lampert's pet projects. a blind man could see this coming. state of the stores has been a huge issue.

The company still has $7.5BN in market equity value. If one believes the thread title is accurate, much less obvious, there's a pretty significant money making opportunity awaiting...

^but they seemingly don't know how and where to spend. their model is funny. the store in the very upscale neighborhood near me is super nice but upscale people don't shop there and the one in the middle-class neighborhood is ****** as if to say you'll take what we give you.

stores that look to extended contracts for $ are marsupialed. i always buy them to get the lower price and then return the extended service contract.