Thread regarding Sears layoffs

I was a customer today at an A store... 3 levels. Apparel seemed well stocked but I observed the strangest thing... swimwear at 40 percent off during the season you would buy such things. The ground level was a disaster. Most of the tool shelves were empty and had dosplay pegs with nothing on them. Very limited lawn and garden selection. The mattress department was huge and customerless. For an A store in a major shopping mall it looked like it was ready to close.

I work in an A level store that is successful for Sears. Our inventory is as described below and in the OP. A mess. If Sears were serious about "returning to profitability" it would have been serious about selling items people want to buy, especially in softlines. It may be too late now because of vendor issues but that could have been a change made for the positive.

Too bad Eddie knows more than focus groups.

What store do you work at?

Not damage control...the truth. You could pull my SYW account and see all the stuff I buy. The only thing I can't buy is tall pants as we don't carry them. Everything else I make a concerted effort to buy at Sears and/or Kmart. Kmart mostly online as I don't have a store near me.

I see corporate starting to play damage control now hahaha

All I can speak to is the Sears store I work in, and we have a well-stocked sales floor with plenty of backstock, and the same variety as always. We're also have a pretty steady stream of customers, busy just about every day. Maybe the inventory problems are only in stores that don't do a lot of business anymore?

Once again I think this is being taken to the extreme. Now I haven't been in a Kmart store in a while as they have closed the closest ones to me, but I am in the Sears store quite frequently and there are lots of things to choose from. You are taking on too much worry all at once. You can't solve most of these things, so why not just concentrate on what you can do to help out? Or if you choose not to help out, then of course that is understandable too.

At this point you cannot question inventory and what you are getting. Simply put you are going to receive product from vendors that will do business with SHC, if that means that you have 300 comforters so be it, hey are the only ones supplying the company. You are going to carry what you can buy and that's not a lot. Think of a person trying to buy a car with an extremely poor credit score, all that person can get might be an old used car with a decent down payment, you can no longer shop the nice new car lot.

"Eddie says all is good. Trust Eddie."

Eddie also said there weren't going to be many layoffs too.

Eddie says all is good. Trust Eddie.

How is the situation not dire? Burning through cash like fire wood in a cold arctic winter, loan and pension payments due, sales declining each month, customer service complaints rising, executives leaving, experienced workers leaving, basic store supplies and equipment non-existant or you can't order, stores falling apart, vendors abandoning, stores closing, employees moral at an all time low, no job security, no raises, no hours, no merchandise, no customers. So what is the upside that you see?

I don't think it's as dire as it is being made out to be. Just like the stores are struggling with finding enough associates to work and the turnover, we have the same issues in HE. There is a lot of turnover and new associates.

The inventory now is determined by what vendors will still ship to Sears/Kmart. You are getting whatever they can get a hold of to sell. Most stores have bare shelves, empty backrooms or a packed back room with too many of the same thing. It is a feast or famine type of business now.

Cleaning out the warehouses to get ready for bankruptcy.

"I wonder how much money can be saved and the effect it would have on the company (in a positive aspect) if Sears really reevaluated their entire inventory system. There is too much waste and lost opportunities with what we have now.

These are serious issues, going back many years, and definitely part of the reason this company has been going down the tubes. They would have to reevaluate their entire philosophy from the ground up. Under the CEO you have now it isn't going to happen. He doesn't have the slightest understanding of the retal business, just a crazy vision of a low investment high profit enterprise.

The problems started in the 1970's, when they moved the "buying" process to central offices. From then on the people in charge of inventory issues had no contact with customers, which was a recipe for disaster. They could screw up with no repercussions. The people in the stores get the grief when things go wrong, but can't do much about it.

This is compounded by recent efforts to tap inventory as a source of cash to keep the company alive. They think it's possible to reduce inventory without affecting sales, which is delusional.

There is also the misuse of computer technology to save money. Sears has always used tech as an excuse to cut costs, which leads to data problems. Computer counts are in error for various reasons, and don't get corrected, because they don't spend the payroll hours to keep it accurate.

Overall it's a dysfunctional system in a doomed company. Observe, learn, and plan to move onto better things.

what do you expect when most vendors wont deal with sears... the ones that do set limits on what can be bought from them due to credit concerns with sears...

You get what suppliers will let you have. That's how it works when you are beyond bankrupt and just haven't admitted it yet.

What items are you not getting in your shipments anymore?

The online orders for store pickup, I won't analyze although I see waste from all retailers in this regard. Except if you order directly from China and if it comes, it comes in a teeny tiny packet. No waste there.

The regular Sears inventory, I agree. I don't know who chooses this stuff. It does seem really random and not related to true replenishment or forecasting what may be popular. It's like no thought what so ever goes into it. But it comes. Just not the items the store is out. Those don't come.

Just stocking up for the next round of markdowns.

I noticed all the comforters in the store. Must of bought them cheap

Reads to me. As though you age getting online orders for store pickup.. Could be wrong but 1 bra 1 Sim card. ??