Poll of the Day > Sears Canada to CLOSE all of its Stores as 12,000 Jobs are LOST!!!

(+) Yeah! (+)

Sears Canada is now seeking court approval to close the remaining 130 stores across the country after already closing 50+ of them leaving 12,000 employees without a job.

The retailer has been in trouble since June as it failed to find a buyer to continue..

It received a bid by former executive chairman Brandon Stranzl to buy the business but they failed to find a solution.

The company plans to start liquidation sales no later than Oct. 19 and expects to continue until Christmas.

It is an "End of an Era" as Sears was once one of the most important and largest retailers in North America but the company has been going down in the changing retail landscape and failed to follow the change..

Would you be sad if Brick and Mortar stores disappear?

https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.1519081.1383084790!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg
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There are still Sears?
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i don't even know what Sears sells.

Well, Canada makes things hard for foreign retailers to do business so this is unsurprising. While Canadians might whine about Trump, they're far more protectionist than he's advocating the US be.
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Zeus posted...

Well, Canada makes things hard for foreign retailers to do business so this is unsurprising. While Canadians might whine about Trump, they're far more protectionist than he's advocating the US be.

Even if true, it's not at all related to the Sears situation. Sears just refused to innovate and got left behind. Anything they sold you could get cheaper (and often better quality) somewhere else. Pretty much no one below the age of 50 ever stepped foot in the store anymore.
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Well sears sucks, every time I go in one it's empty and the service sucks. Good riddance.

Sears sucks so I don't care, and maybe other retailers will use this example and not fudge up their stores. Bye bye sears you won't be missed.

I had a friend that used to get all the old Craftsman tools he could get, no matter how rusty or nasty, as cheaply as he could get them, and then he would send people (because he'd already done it a lot of times) to exchange them for new tools. Doing this, he'd get brand new wrenches and shit for free or close to it.
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Dynalo posted...

Zeus posted...

Well, Canada makes things hard for foreign retailers to do business so this is unsurprising. While Canadians might whine about Trump, they're far more protectionist than he's advocating the US be.

Even if true, it's not at all related to the Sears situation. Sears just refused to innovate and got left behind. Anything they sold you could get cheaper (and often better quality) somewhere else. Pretty much no one below the age of 50 ever stepped foot in the store anymore.

While Sears has had its issues, keep in mind that Canada even drove TARGET -- which is immensely successful in the US -- out of the country thanks to its onerous legislation.
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Sears? You mean the Maytag resellers?
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Zeus posted...

While Sears has had its issues, keep in mind that Canada even drove TARGET -- which is immensely successful in the US -- out of the country thanks to its onerous legislation.

That's not why Target failed in Canada. Target failed in Canada because they didn't know how to appeal to Canadian shoppers. Corporate just kept running the stores and marketing like they were trying to sell to Americans.

Sears failing is a whole other issue, that has to do with horrible mismanagement. They had individual departments within Sears stores competing with each other, which killed sales of Sears brands (e.g. Kenmore, Craftsman), further hurting their bottom line.
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Zeus posted...

Dynalo posted...

Zeus posted...

Well, Canada makes things hard for foreign retailers to do business so this is unsurprising. While Canadians might whine about Trump, they're far more protectionist than he's advocating the US be.

Even if true, it's not at all related to the Sears situation. Sears just refused to innovate and got left behind. Anything they sold you could get cheaper (and often better quality) somewhere else. Pretty much no one below the age of 50 ever stepped foot in the store anymore.

While Sears has had its issues, keep in mind that Canada even drove TARGET -- which is immensely successful in the US -- out of the country thanks to its onerous legislation.

Right...or it's because they sell the same shit as Walmart but more expensive.
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Despite Amazon being my primary shopping vendor, there are times I'd prefer going to an actual store, seeing what I want to buy, and buying it instead of waiting for said product to arrive later that day, next day, or two days later.
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mrduckbear posted...

Would you be sad if Brick and Mortar stores disappear?

That would never happen.
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dainkinkaide posted...

Zeus posted...

While Sears has had its issues, keep in mind that Canada even drove TARGET -- which is immensely successful in the US -- out of the country thanks to its onerous legislation.

That's not why Target failed in Canada. Target failed in Canada because they didn't know how to appeal to Canadian shoppers. Corporate just kept running the stores and marketing like they were trying to sell to Americans.

Sears failing is a whole other issue, that has to do with horrible mismanagement. They had individual departments within Sears stores competing with each other, which killed sales of Sears brands (e.g. Kenmore, Craftsman), further hurting their bottom line.

Except no, Target was forced to make a lot of expensive, pointless changes for the Canadian market.

VeeVees posted...

Zeus posted...

Dynalo posted...

Zeus posted...

Well, Canada makes things hard for foreign retailers to do business so this is unsurprising. While Canadians might whine about Trump, they're far more protectionist than he's advocating the US be.

Even if true, it's not at all related to the Sears situation. Sears just refused to innovate and got left behind. Anything they sold you could get cheaper (and often better quality) somewhere else. Pretty much no one below the age of 50 ever stepped foot in the store anymore.

While Sears has had its issues, keep in mind that Canada even drove TARGET -- which is immensely successful in the US -- out of the country thanks to its onerous legislation.

Right...or it's because they sell the same shit as Walmart but more expensive.

If you mean Sears, they have fairly different selections considering that Walmart doesn't even sell appliances or beds and then Walmart sells furniture whereas Sears doesn't.

If you mean Walmart and Target, their prices are pretty similar although Target tends to carry nicer in-house brands. You'd know that if you ever tried assembling a Mainstays bookcase -- which, while slightly cheaper than Target's Room Essentials bookcase, is a colossal fucking headache and something I'll never try again.

(And, in general, I should probably just try to buy used, assembled bookcases instead of DIY assembly ones.)
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sears didn't keep up with the times and treated their employees badly leading to bad service at many locations. The only reason they lasted as long as they did was because they were so big in the first place.
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Not in Canada. All Target sold were normal brands at significantly higher prices. Hell, they were more expensive than other supermarkets like Safeway and Superstore.
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Zeus posted...

(And, in general, I should probably just try to buy used, assembled bookcases instead of DIY assembly ones.

Just go to IKEA and get some Billy.
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Zeus posted...

Except no, Target was forced to make a lot of expensive, pointless changes for the Canadian market.

Walmart seems to be doing just fine in the Canadian market. But they actually changed their sales and marketing strategies to adapt to said market, unlike Target.

There are countless American businesses that are doing just fine in Canada, because they adapted to a different market. Target failed because they didn't. Sears is failing because they've been failing everywhere since Lampert took over a decade ago.
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VeeVees posted...

Not in Canada. All Target sold were normal brands at significantly higher prices. Hell, they were more expensive than other supermarkets like Safeway and Superstore.

Unless supermarket means something else up there (and I *thought* I just called supermarkets supermarkets when I lived in Calgary, but I was young then), I think some wires are being crossed. While Targets *do* have a supermarket section, most of the store is other stuff which you usually don't find in supermarkets.
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Brick and mortar stores need to change drastically. ITs not realistic to compete with online, if only because of the logistic issues and theft/losses (those exist in warehouses of online-only stores too, but not nearly as much).

Specialty local stores for things you really want to see in person (think Ikea or the local mom & pop craft store) are probably going to stay around if they play their cards right.

Crap like Sears and Best Buy are essentially doomed. As they try to compete with online in price, they have less and less staff and the stores go to ruin. No one wants to shop in a store thats in ruin (okay, there's Walmart but they're a special case).

Non-specialty stores have to become showrooms and an easy place to impulse buy popular items. Eg: if I walk in a BestBuy, what I should see is a bunch of display models of the latest trends in TVs, computers or games, being able to buy a few flagship products right there and then but being redirect to Amazon or whatever to buy the rest. They'd be paid by the manifacturers as a type of marketing, not by the shoppers (aside for a margin on those specific new/popular things they DO carry, which should be a very limited selection).

Think the pop up stores Microsoft had for a while, or appliance show rooms like Yales' appliance...but for everything that isn't a restaurant or a specialty mom&pop shop.

Nooooooo i like Sears

Damn all these iconic places possibly being gone forever is making me feel old
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How can someone like Zeus be so wrong so often without shutting the fuck up? He literally has wrong opinions on everything.

Zeus posted...

Dynalo posted...

Zeus posted...

Well, Canada makes things hard for foreign retailers to do business so this is unsurprising. While Canadians might whine about Trump, they're far more protectionist than he's advocating the US be.

Even if true, it's not at all related to the Sears situation. Sears just refused to innovate and got left behind. Anything they sold you could get cheaper (and often better quality) somewhere else. Pretty much no one below the age of 50 ever stepped foot in the store anymore.

While Sears has had its issues, keep in mind that Canada even drove TARGET -- which is immensely successful in the US -- out of the country thanks to its onerous legislation.

Part of TARGETs problem was they opened to many stores to quickly, and then couldnt keep things on the shelves.

If they opened maybe 5 or 6 stores, one in each major city (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,Toronto, and Montreal) they would have been more successful
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Ogurisama posted...

Part of TARGETs problem was they opened to many stores to quickly, and then couldnt keep things on the shelves.

If they opened maybe 5 or 6 stores, one in each major city (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,Toronto, and Montreal) they would have been more successful

That and as someone that really enjoyed shopping at Target in the US, the Canadian stores were different. They were an awful shopping experience generally. All of the appeal of Target was lost with the higher prices and poorly lit renovated Zellers stores.

Sears is just outdated. It was just a place to buy appliances more or less.
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VeeVees posted...

Not in Canada. All Target sold were normal brands at significantly higher prices. Hell, they were more expensive than other supermarkets like Safeway and Superstore.

Assuming you could even find anything to buy. Not sure about the other ones, but the one in my city must have opened well before they were ready. The shelves were barren and they kept saying they were having warehouse problems and couldn't get the stock they ordered to actually come in. So for the first few months you'd go in for something only to find that entire section complete devoid of product. A lot of people just stopped going after a while because they always needed to go somewhere else (aka Walmart) to get another item or two, so they just decided to do all their shopping at Walmart.

Doctor Foxx posted...

That and as someone that really enjoyed shopping at Target in the US, the Canadian stores were different

Despite my many trips to the US, I've never been to the Target there. However, many of my coworkers make a point of stopping at Target when they go to the US, and they all said that the Canadian Targets were just overpriced garbage in comparison (basically they changed the Zellers name, but didn't actually change anything about the store... Which is why it failed again).
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Dynalo posted...

Despite my many trips to the US, I've never been to the Target there. However, many of my coworkers make a point of stopping at Target when they go to the US, and they all said that the Canadian Targets were just overpriced garbage in comparison (basically they changed the Zellers name, but didn't actually change anything about the store... Which is why it failed again).

That's exactly what they did. Slapped some of those red balls infront of the store and reopen with higher prices. It was Zellers.

Ogurisama posted...

Part of TARGETs problem was they opened to many stores to quickly, and then couldnt keep things on the shelves.

If they opened maybe 5 or 6 stores, one in each major city (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,Toronto, and Montreal) they would have been more successful

Ah, so definitely not just my store then. A universal problem - and a big one at that. You're not gonna keep shopping somewhere if they never have half the things you went there for.
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I'm not an 85 year old woman, so I'm not sad that Sears is going.
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Also, Zeus, I'd be interested in hearing exactly which Canadian policies contributes to Targets demise. You keep saying that we have strict rules that led to their demise, but haven't clarified on what they were. Was there rules around what product they could bring into the country? If so, why is the Walmart here and in the US not very different? Was there some extra hoops to jump through to open the stores? If so, why not just roll out the openings and not overextend yourself? It just reeks of mismanagement on the company's side unless I'm missing something obvious here?

All I can say is that as a shopper there, I found Walmart to be cheaper and of equal quality, and I could actually find things at Walmart. When given the choice, I knew which store I was going to.
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I think maybe the Sears nearby still probably sells like the Nintendo Wii lol.
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ShadosAtPhoenix posted...

Crap like Sears and Best Buy are essentially doomed. As they try to compete with online in price, they have less and less staff and the stores go to ruin. No one wants to shop in a store thats in ruin (okay, there's Walmart but they're a special case).

Well, I mean Best Buy barely does anything not offered by Amazon so... at some point? The only advantage is the Geek Squad which can help out people unfamiliar with the tech they just bought and, of course, the fact that people might not buy larger things online.

By contrast, Sears really tries to do too much and it doesn't do anything particularly well. Your average Sears will sell lawn maintenance equipment, mattresses, major appliances, clothing, tvs, games, and everything else. Some of that makes sense, most of it doesn't.
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I've never even heard of this Steve Canada guy before why does he have so many stores in the first place
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Well I do pretty much all of my shopping online now so no, I wouldn't miss them.
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Dynalo posted...

Zeus posted...

Well, Canada makes things hard for foreign retailers to do business so this is unsurprising. While Canadians might whine about Trump, they're far more protectionist than he's advocating the US be.

Even if true, it's not at all related to the Sears situation. Sears just refused to innovate and got left behind. Anything they sold you could get cheaper (and often better quality) somewhere else. Pretty much no one below the age of 50 ever stepped foot in the store anymore.

Yeah, youre both right.
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ShadosAtPhoenix posted...

Brick and mortar stores need to change drastically. ITs not realistic to compete with online, if only because of the logistic issues and theft/losses (those exist in warehouses of online-only stores too, but not nearly as much).

So what are they going to do then? Convert all those buildings to apartments?
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The writing is on the wall for stores that aren't WalMart, Costco, and Target. Im expecting Sears US division, Kmart, or Kohls to go next.
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Revelation34 posted...

ShadosAtPhoenix posted...

Brick and mortar stores need to change drastically. ITs not realistic to compete with online, if only because of the logistic issues and theft/losses (those exist in warehouses of online-only stores too, but not nearly as much).

So what are they going to do then? Convert all those buildings to apartments?

It depends on your local county/government and what they do with the land I imagine. I have areas by me where dollar trees and other stores have been closed for years and they haven't done anything with them. It brings down the value of the neighborhood and county if there are a lot of empty buildings.
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Jiggy101011 posted...

It depends on your local county/government and what they do with the land I imagine. I have areas by me where dollar trees and other stores have been closed for years and they haven't done anything with them. It brings down the value of the neighborhood and county if there are a lot of empty buildings.

That was sarcasm. My point is the same as my original post. Brick and Mortar stores will never 100% disappear.
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Jiggy101011 posted...

The writing is on the wall for stores that aren't WalMart, Costco, and Target. Im expecting Sears US division, Kmart, or Kohls to go next.

Given that Sears and Kmart are owned by the same parent company, what happens to one will likely happen to the other. Kohls is unlikely to go because several of its direct competitors have either folded or are looking weak right now and, unlike other industries, customers like buying clothes in person. Plus, year-to-year, Kohls has reported fairly consistent earnings --- 19b net revenue/sales, 6.9b gross profit -- for the past five years, with only last year being a small dip.
https://amigobulls.com/stocks/KSS/income-statement/annual

As for Costco, they have an absurdly weird business model which basically discriminates against the poor and hurts average customers through membership fees and bulk purchasing practices. It's not so much a retailer as it is a wholesale distributor which offers worse terms than average wholesale distributors. Because of that business model, Costco operates on much tighter margins than something like Kohls (again, like a wholesaler rather a retailer) so, despite doing over 118b net revenue last year, it only accrued 15.8 gross profit
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/cost/financials

Granted, Costo has been growing year-over-year for the past 5 years.
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mrduckbear posted...

The retailer has been in trouble since June

You've been living under a rock, haven't you.

The last few times I've been inside a Sears, it was messy and disorganized and it seemed no one cared. They probably didn't. Three different Sears locations (two of which are now closed), yet the general feel for all three was the same. Even JCPenney, with its own problem, it feels like JCPenney is actively trying, unlike Sears.
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